BrazilELEVATE of Hong Kong picks up Swiss sustainability firm BSD Consulting
Hong Kong-based business sustainability consultancy ELEVATE has bought Swiss counterpart BSD Consulting, expanding its reach in Europe and Latin America.
Co-founded by ex-consulting firms worldwide, with an existing headcount of 500 and offices dotted across the globe – including its headquarters in Hong Kong and additional Asian branches in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam.
ELEVATE provides risk and sustainability assessments, consulting, analytics, and programme management across the business value chain, with a particular focus on responsible supply chain sourcing, serving clients in the agricultural & food, electronics, apparel & footwear, automotive, and financial sectors with tailored solutions aimed at creating lasting positive impact and increased organisational performance.
Following the sale of a majority stake to European private equity outfit EQT last year (which holds around €50 billion in raised capital) in a bid to promote ELEVATE’s “continued growth, development of new services, and further expansion into the European market through EQT’s industrial network continued growth,” the firm has announced the acquisition of Swiss-based sustainability advisory BSD Consulting.
“We are delighted to welcome BSD and are pleased to share the belief that the economic power of business can activate sustainable development in society to improve people’s lives,” said Spaulding of the purchase. “Together, as one of the world’s largest sustainability organisations we are uniquely positioned to lead and deliver innovative sustainability solutions in local markets globally.”
Founded in Switzerland in 1998, BSD has itself expanded over the past twenty years to include nine offices worldwide – Spain, Portugal and Germany in Europe and the US, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Brazil in the Americas together with an outlet in China – now complementing ELEVATE’s existing non-Asian locations in Australia, the US, UK, Turkey, Italy, Germany and Brazil.
“BSD’s strengths in sustainability strategy, reporting, sustainable supply chain management, and GRI consultancy and training highly complement ELEVATE’s existing offerings,” said Felipe Arango, Partner at BSD Consulting. “We are also now able to deliver assessment, monitoring and verification services to our corporate clients in Europe by leveraging ELEVATE’s extensive on-the-ground teams throughout Asia’s major sourcing markets.”
According to ELEVATE, the acquisition of BSD will augment its traditional strengths in the apparel, retail, consumer goods and electronics sectors with the Swiss firm’s expertise in the agricultural, automotive and mining sectors. In a statement, ELEVATE noted that the entire BSD team – including Arango and founders Beat Grüninger and Peter Teuscher – has joined the firm and will continue to implement BSD’s existing programmes and client work.
