In recent years, there has been a major increase of private equity managers using ESG criteria in management. Where impact investors have paved the way, mainstream private equity funds are now following closely, convinced that this makes long-term sense from both a commercial perspective and in terms of societal impact.
Initially, a large part of the focus was on divestment from sectors with high climate-related risks. As sustainability is becoming the new standard for private equity, the focus is now rapidly shifting towards overall sustainability portfolio management.