Author Archives: Tom Murray

Top 10 Private Equity ESG Developments in 2012

By Tom Murray | Bio | Published: January 24, 2013

As we close out our first month of 2013, let's look back at the prior year to reflect on the progress the private equity industry has made on environmental, social and governance (ESG) management. In classic fashion, we hereby present a top 10 list of private equity ESG developments in 2012. 1. Private equity reporting [...]

Posted in Behavior, EDF Climate Corps, Energy Efficiency, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Innovation, News Commentary, Partnerships, Private Equity, Tools | Leave a comment

TPG's New Sustainability Website Highlights Increased Transparency in Private Equity

By Tom Murray | Bio | Published: October 17, 2012

Four years ago, as EDF was building up our Green Returns project, I landed a meeting with a leading private equity firm to discuss sustainability and possibly participating in our new initiatives. On the train into Manhattan, I looked up the firm's website on my smart phone to find the exact address for our meeting. [...]

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BSR Insight highlights environmental progress in private equity

By Tom Murray | Bio | Published: October 9, 2012

When Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) first teamed up with leaders in the private equity industry four years ago, we were building on the learnings from over 20 years of partnerships with leading public companies. However, as BSR’s recent blog points out, there are now new lessons learned from private equity firms that all companies can [...]

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BSR Report Takes Stock of Private Equity Industry's ESG Reporting

By Tom Murray | Bio | Published: October 1, 2012

A recent report by BSR on the level of environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting in the private equity industry provides a useful benchmark of the progress that has been made, as well as the ground that remains to be covered. BSR authors Laura Gitman and Charlotte Bancilhon reviewed the ESG reporting practices of the [...]

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Top Investors Buy In to Environmental Performance

By Tom Murray | Bio | Published: September 13, 2012

Proactively managing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities can be a powerful lever for value creation. Since the launch of our Green Returns work in 2008, we’ve worked hard to convince private equity and institutional investors of that. We’re now seeing the pay off as these issues have climbed up the agenda at [...]

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Help Wanted: Private Equity Firms Add Staff to Manage Environmental Risk and Opportunities

By Tom Murray | Bio | Published: July 2, 2012

A growing number of private equity firms are hiring in-house professionals and engaging outside experts to better manage environmental, social, and governance risks and opportunities. Private Equity International's Responsible Investment Handbook 2012 highlighted this trend earlier this year. In particular, the handbook spotlighted the fact that private equity leaders are adding new and much deeper [...]

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Private equity changes ripple across the pond

By Tom Murray | Bio | Published: December 5, 2011

Over the past few years we have been working with The Carlyle Group (Carlyle), Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), and other industry leaders to develop new best practices that create environmental and business benefits for our partners, and ripple effects across their industry. Our goal is to make measuring and managing environmental performance a standard practice [...]

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The Green in PE’s Operational Focus

By Tom Murray | Bio | Published: April 18, 2011

A recent article entitled “TPG: The Operators” speaks volumes for how private equity (PE) is yet again, transforming itself. Although the mega-buyout shop TPG has a history of beating the market and making its investors wealthy, the economic environment is still challenging and today the buyout firm has many more competitors than when it was founded in [...]

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Private Equity 3.0 – A new approach to sustainable value

By Tom Murray | Bio | Published: March 17, 2011

Even incredibly successful products, services, and business models need to be reinvented from time to time to remain competitive. You might browse using the latest and greatest version of some new technology – Windows 7, Internet Explorer 8, the BlackBerry Torch, or the new iPad 3G. These updates are happening faster than ever and not [...]

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Laying the Foundation for ESG Value Creation

By Tom Murray | Bio | Published: January 13, 2011

On Monday, The Carlyle Group (Carlyle) – one of Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) corporate partners and the world’s second largest private equity firm – released its first-ever Corporate Citizenship Report, outlining the firm’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts and plans for the future. The report is a first of its kind by a leading [...]

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