Author Archives: Lee Coker

Carlyle's Annual Report Highlights $7 Million in ESG Savings

By | Published: April 26, 2013

The Carlyle Group's annual report, released last week, highlights significant savings and environmental impact from the sustainability programs ongoing at Carlyle portfolio companies.  In addition, as Carlyle continues to branch out beyond buyouts it's showing an interest in integrating ESG into investment decisions in other asset classes, beginning with real estate. Environmental initiatives have saved [...]

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ESG Management Takes Center Stage at SuperReturn Berlin

By | Published: March 5, 2013

Last week, I attended Europe’s largest private equity event of the year, where 1,400 of the world’s leading private equity sector professionals gathered to discuss the future of the industry, fundraising opportunities and the economic climate. I spoke at two events: a panel entitled “ESG: Theory vs. Practice – Discerning quality ESG from claims of [...]

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Pitchbook webcast sheds light on ESG trends in private equity

By | Published: February 28, 2013

Private equity (PE) firms are increasingly aware of the need for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) management, a trend likely to continue, with 55 percent of firms recently surveyed by PitchBook saying they plan to increase their attention to ESG issues in the future. The biggest challenge that PE firms cited in establishing an effective [...]

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Blackstone's Solar Program Demonstrates Power of Network Effect

By | Published: January 7, 2013

Our hat's off to Blackstone, which recently announced a new solar program. This development has the potential to cut energy costs by 10 percent and improve environmental performance across all the firm's real estate assets and portfolio companies, which have aggregate revenues of $116 billion. Smart Energy Capital will oversee installation of rooftop solar panels [...]

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Impressive new results of KKR's Green Portfolio Program provide important insights for the private equity sector

By | Published: December 17, 2012

Today KKR announced the fourth year of results from its Green Portfolio Program (GPP), with portfolio companies saving a whopping $644 million and avoiding more than 1.2 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, 3.4 million tons of waste, and 13.2 million cubic meters of water. We know it has taken a significant amount of [...]

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EDF Releases New ESG Management Tool for Private Equity

By | Published: December 13, 2012

We're gratified by the response to our new tool for measuring environmental, social and governance performance in the private equity sector, which for the first time defines the practices needed to build a successful ESG management program and provides a framework to assess and improve ESG management at firms of all sizes. EDF developed the [...]

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AlpInvest CEO Wants to See Private Equity take its ESG Efforts to the Next Level – We’re Developing a Tool for That

By | Published: November 28, 2012

We were excited to hear AlpInvest Partners Chief Executive Volkert Doeksen's recent remarks where he urged institutional investors (LPs) in private equity to keep pushing for greater integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives into the management of private equity firms (GPs) by focusing their efforts on implementation and results. Incorporating ESG into a [...]

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Oak Hill Partnership Shows That Environmental Opportunities Abound for Middle-Market Private Equity Firms

By | Published: October 11, 2012

Large private equity firms like The Carlyle Group (Carlyle) and KKR have clearly proven the environmental, financial and reputational benefits of undertaking environmental initiatives within their portfolios. Since we started our private equity work in 2008, however, smaller firms have repeatedly questioned whether it is really possible to replicate a similar approach at the majority [...]

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Private Equity Firms Realize the Value of Participating in EDF Climate Corps

By | Published: September 18, 2012

In recent weeks, the eight EDF Climate Corps fellows who have been embedded at private equity firms and their portfolio companies began giving their final reports to senior management about their efforts to identify strategic opportunities to increase energy efficiency and returns. We've been impressed at the level of engagement by top leaders at The [...]

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