IA’s ESG Journey: A Milestone

In 2025, we reached an important milestone in IA’s journey toward deeper environmental accountability: our first-ever voluntary disclosure through the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).

The CDP is the world’s most widely used and trusted environmental reporting platform, with over 22,000 companies participating each year, representing two-thirds of global market capitalization. Founded in 2000 to promote environmental transparency and accountability by making climate reporting and risk management a common practice, CDP provides a globally recognized framework for evaluating an organization’s climate transparency, risk awareness, and environmental management practices, applying a rigorous scoring methodology that ranges from grades A to D-. And it is fully aligned with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). CDP reporting requirements vary by industry/sector and company size, but all participating companies must disclose emissions and energy consumption data.

What began as a learning experience quickly became a defining moment in how we understand—and communicate—IA’s impact. For the first time, IA completed CDP’s full corporate questionnaire, a rigorous process that required us to look closely at our emissions, climate risks, and the ripple effects of our operations across our value chain. Through participation in the CDP Supply Chain program, we were able to allocate emissions associated with the services we provide to clients—bringing new clarity and traceability to how our work intersects with the broader decarbonization ambitions of the clients we partner with.    

How Did We Do?

IA earned a B, an achievement that underscores our growing maturity in climate management and our commitment to transparency. Within our Sector (General) and activity group (Specialized Professional Services), our B score aligns with the Global Average score of B, but is above the regional average (Americas) score of C, as well as the activity group average score of C. Within the 16 climate change scoring categories, IA's score in 4 categories is at the Global Category Average, but above the Global Category Average in 8 categories, earning an A or A- in 6 of those categories. In the remaining 4 categories, we scored below average.

IA also received a separate A- Supplier Engagement Assessment (SEA) score, formerly known as CDP’s Supplier Engagement Rating (SER). The SEA score is determined by responses concentrating on five main areas: Scope 3 Emissions, Supplier Engagement, Targets, Governance and Business Strategy, and Risk Management Processes. 

These scores also reinforce IA’s alignment with the SBTi reduction trajectory based on validated targets to define emissions our firm has committed to. While SBTi sets the “what,” the level of emissions reduction required to stay on a 1.5°C aligned pathway, CDP evaluates the “how well,” assessing the completeness, accuracy, and transparency of IA’s climate data, governance, and risk management. Together, these two frameworks ensure IA’s climate strategy is both ambitious and credibly disclosed, strengthening accountability across our operations.

What Does This Mean?

This accomplishment comes during one of the most significant years in CDP’s 25-year history, with 22,000+ companies scored and 640 investors, who oversee $127 trillion in assets, relying on CDP data to guide environmental decision making. Our participation places IA within a global ecosystem of organizations working to advance a more resilient, low-carbon future—signaling to our employees, clients, partners, and community IA’s commitment to the same standards of transparency we encourage across the industry.

More than a score, CDP has given us a clearer lens to measure our progress, assess risks, and align our strategy. By pairing our SBTi-validated targets with CDP’s disclosure and scoring system, IA is establishing a unified, data-driven foundation for monitoring progress year-over-year, demonstrating to stakeholders that IA’s climate commitments are verifiable, measurable, and grounded in globally recognized standards. This reinforces our belief that sustainability leadership requires not only design excellence, but transparency, verification, and the courage to evolve.