Sustainability in portfolio engagement

Once invested, we use our influence with portfolio companies with a view to ensuring, over the life of the investment, that they monitor ESG factors and that they have a proportionate sustainability strategy in place. This includes:

• board or management-level responsibility and appropriate governance, reporting structures and resourcing to manage ESG risks and opportunities that may impact their business over the holding period;
• assessing material ESG issues and devising appropriate strategies to address them;
• measuring their carbon footprint, setting science-based targets or appropriate decarbonisation plans, and demonstrating decarbonisation progress within a reasonable timeframe; 
• establishing relevant and proportionate governance and sustainability-related policies and procedures;
• ensuring they are well prepared to meet regulatory requirements; and
• considering stakeholders in their management of ESG issues and communicating transparently.

We leverage our knowledge and expertise across our portfolio and facilitate the sharing of best practice, either through introductions, or through forums on themes including plastics, carbon and information security and digital innovation. In addition, ESG was a key agenda item at our portfolio company CFO forum in November 2023, where a discussion facilitated by an external specialist consultancy and our internal portfolio sustainability team focused on the role of the CFO and finance team in enabling the delivery and monitoring of sustainability strategies with applicable KPIs. This theme is particularly relevant given upcoming sustainability regulations in the EU.

In February 2024, we held our inaugural sustainability forum in Amsterdam, welcoming sustainability representatives from 30 of our Private Equity and Infrastructure portfolio companies. The agenda included discussions and expert presentations on topics ranging from how to develop an effective sustainability strategy and prepare for ESG regulation, to science-based targets and value-led decarbonisation. A number of delegates from our portfolio companies also presented their strategies and experiences of these topics. The forum was an opportunity for the delegates to get to know one another in an informal setting and establish a network of peers across our portfolio. Following the forum, we launched a virtual space where our team and the sustainability representatives of our portfolio companies can remain engaged on these and other relevant topics.