Last month, AFP reported that McKinsey & Company, an elite management consulting firm that works for fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil and Aramco, used “its position as a key advisor to the UN's COP28 climate talks to push the interests of its big oil and gas clients," advocating for trillions of dollars of new fossil fuel investments per year until 2050. McKinsey’s ties to the industry are particularly apparent on LinkedIn, where the firm’s employees are reveling in their closeness to fossil fuel executives — while also greenwashing McKinsey.
According to their LinkedIn profiles, key McKinsey employees who were on the ground in Dubai during COP28 previously worked at major fossil fuel companies. For example, Micah Smith, a Senior Partner at McKinsey, used to be a financial analysis team lead at Shell. Smith has used LinkedIn to promote McKinsey’s flattering September interview of Exxon CEO Darren Woods, repost content greenwashing natural gas by a natural gas company, advocate for "affordable, secure, competitive, clean" liquid natural (methane) gas, and brag about “hosting a series of Oil & Gas related events” at COP28, at least one of which featured executives from fossil fuel companies.
In the last six months, other McKinsey employees have also posted on LinkedIn about participating in events alongside fossil fuel industry representatives. Partner Henrique Ceotto celebrated his participation in an event involving a Petrobras employee, Associate Partner Matthias Pautz posted about speaking at an event hosted by Aramco, and the official McKinsey Middle East account advertised Partner Loukas Ziomas’ involvement in an event featuring ADNOC, Aramco, and OQ executives.
Despite these open celebrations of McKinsey’s fossil fuel industry work, numerous McKinsey staffers are also using LinkedIn to greenwash the firm, falsely characterizing it as a sustainable company. For example, Senior Partner Cindy Levy, Senior Partner Harry Bowcott, and the official McKinsey page use the #McKinseySustainability hashtag to promote McKinsey’s COP-related events and initiatives, while Smith simply uses #sustainability and Ceotto uses the Portuguese #sustentabilidade.
If McKinsey truly wants to be sustainable, it should start by refusing to work for the fossil fuel industry. It probably won't cut off that profitable relationship any time soon, but at a minimum, McKinsey employees with a conscience can, when tasked with helping the fossil fuel industry, always just do a really half-assed job of it, "the American way!"