Starting today, one of the world’s largest private equity firms – The Carlyle Group – will look for opportunities to improve operations and create value through environmental innovation during the assessment of potential acquisitions. Carlyle’s new environmental due diligence process – called EcoValuScreen – is the result of a collaboration between Carlyle, EDF, and The Payne Firm and has the potential to transform due diligence practices at Carlyle and across the private equity industry.
Before acquiring any new corporate asset, private equity firms conduct a “due diligence” process – which typically considers only environmental risks and liability (e.g., contaminated groundwater cleanup) – to assess a company’s value. Using this new approach, Carlyle will now identify opportunities to improve operations, reduce costs, and strengthen the market position of target companies through steps like improving energy efficiency, reducing material inputs and waste generation, and developing environmental products and services before an investment decision is made. Most importantly, the highest impact opportunities will be incorporated into the management plans for Carlyle’s portfolio companies.
This early-stage approach sets a new standard for the industry and expands the mindset on environmental due diligence from downside risks to upside opportunities.
Moving forward, EDF will work with Carlyle to implement the screen in its U.S. and Europe buyout funds (which represent about $30 billion in assets under management), make refinements as necessary, and share lessons learned with other leading firms at edf.org/duediligence.
As mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, today’s announcement builds on our pioneering work with KKR to develop the firm’s Green Portfolio Program that is currently helping to measure and manage environmental performance at 20% of KKR’s global portfolio companies. We view these two collaborations as complementary initiatives that combine to help improve business and environmental performance at different stages of the private equity value chain. We look forward to both becoming standard practices for value creation across the industry.