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Green Portfolio
Due Diligence: Environmental Management Can Increase Returns for PE Firms
11/19/2009
Reaching out to the Private Equity Industry
11/03/2009
Helping Private Equity Ask the Right Questions About the Environment
10/29/2009
FEATURED CASE STUDY
Citigroup
Costs of storing, printing, disposing, moving and managing office paper can be up to 31 times its purchase price.
Key Opportunities
Just Getting Started?
See the five fundamental steps you can take to understand your company's biggest environmental opportunities.
As a driving force in our economy, the financial services industry can help lead the way to a greener, more sustainable future. While employees can reduce energy use, improve purchasing policies and reduce employee travel, your company’s true power is in mobilizing the trillions of dollars forecasted to flow into renewable and energy efficient technologies and environmentally preferable products and services.
Make your internal operations greener
- Energy & Climate - Reduce building and office energy use.
- Consider investing in carbon offsets to neutralize the remaining emissions produced from your business.
- Travel - Reduce employee travel and improve telecommuting options.
- Paper - Reduce paper use in your office and in your customer communications.
Collaborate with your customers and suppliers
- Work with paper and equipment providers to maximize environmental aspects of their products using this supplier evaluation form [PDF].
- Develop lending and insurance programs to drive energy efficiency through your portfolio of companies and investments.
- Invest in promising new clean and energy efficient technologies.
Manage current and future risks
- Nanotechnology - Investors and insurers have an opportunity to ensure that the companies they work with properly understand and mitigate the risks related to nano-scale materials. The Nano Risk Framework provides a process to identify, manage and reduce potential health, safety and environmental risks of nano-scale materials.
- Climate change - Join a growing list of financial services companies that are incorporating climate risks into their financing decisions.
- Water - The United States is already experiencing regional water shortages that impact human health and agriculture operations. Financial firms can encourage companies to employ water efficiency technologies to manage this emerging risk.
Examples: What financial service companies are doing
- Building upon the history of the Equator Principles, six of the world’s largest banks have committed to the Carbon Principles to mitigate the risks of financing electric power projects.
- Private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, real estate investment trusts and leading pension funds are creating internal tracking mechanisms to drive energy efficiency and environmental improvement throughout their portfolio holdings, cutting costs, reducing risks and capturing value that was once overlooked.
- Auto insurers like Progressive and GMAC are offering favorable rates to drivers who reduce their miles driven. Fireman’s Fund has created special coverage for green-certified buildings to help property owners restore their buildings back to spec following a loss.
- Lloyd's of London, the world's leading specialist insurance market, encouraged insurers to seek evidence of whether projects they are covering have followed proper nanotechnology risk assessment procedures.
Posted: 29-Oct-2008; Updated: 26-May-2009
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