Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Environmental Defense Fund say the Green Portfolio Program has achieved USD160m in savings after just two years.
The programme, launched in 2008, harnesses innovation to improve financial and environmental performance of KKR’s portfolio companies.
The programme focuses on several key environmental performance areas, including greenhouse gas emissions, waste, water, forest resources, and priority chemicals.
“Today’s impressive results clearly link good environmental practices with superior business performance,” says Tom Murray (pictured), managing director for corporate partnerships at Environmental Defense Fund. “They also illustrate the important role that KKR and the private equity sector can play in driving widespread industry change by implementing environmental best practices across multiple companies.”
To date, eight portfolio companies are reporting performance and have adopted innovations that have resulted in avoiding over USD160m in operating costs, 345,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions, 8,500 tons of paper, and 1.2 million tons of waste.
Dean Nelson, head of KKR Capstone, says: “We continue to create value in the KKR portfolio while improving our environmental stewardship. Most importantly, the portfolio companies and the communities in which they operate are benefiting from this effort, which is evident in the expansion of the program within the companies as well as across the portfolio.”
Since inception, the programme has expanded to include approximately 20 per cent of the companies in KKR’s global private equity portfolio, including Accellent, Biomet, Dollar General, First Data, HCA, Lehigh Phoenix (a division of Visant), Oriental Brewery, Primedia, Sealy, SunGard Data Systems, Tarkett, and US Foodservice.
