The Environmental Defense Fund and buyout firm, Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts made an interesting announcement today. Their “Green Portolio” collaboration taps into EDF’s expertise to create analytical tools to “assess and track improvements on a series of environmental metrics. These tools will enable managers to cost-effectively improve efficiency, reduce waste and address environmental impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions, the use of toxic substances, waste generation or water consumption.”

I’m encouraged by such talk. But it’s interesting that this announcement comes about 10 weeks after a scathing report published by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) entitled “Winners and Losers: The Fallout from KKR’s Race for Profit.” This report highlights negative environmental impacts from some of KKR portfolio companies (particularly Accellent and Borden Chemicals).

It would have been much better for KKR to have instituted the Green Portfolio collaboration before the report by the SEIU. It could have been a more impactful announcement and would have been met with less skepticism.

Still if KKR and EDF can develop some useful tools, begin publicly reporting environmental metrics for their portfolio companies and propagate these processes so that many other firms manage and report on their environmental impact, then the result will be very fine indeed. The proof of concept is targeted for some time in the next 3-6 months. I’m marking my calendar. I want to see what comes out of this.

Tags: business benefits of going green, businesses going green, environmental reporting, measuring sustainability

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