The partnership between private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company (KKR) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has yielded $160 million in savings over two years. The two organizations launched the Green Portfolio Program in 2008 to help the private equity firm improve the environmental performance of dozens of its portfolio companies.
Since the launch, the program has expanded to include approximately 20 percent 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 U.S. Foodservice.
The program focuses on several key environmental performance areas (KEPAs) including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, waste, water, forest resources, and priority chemicals.
To date, eight portfolio companies are reporting on their environmental performance and have adopted measures that have resulted in cutting operating costs by $160 million and preventing 345,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions. The companies also cut paper consumption by 8,500 tons of paper and waste by 1.2 million tons.
The newest four companies are in the process of evaluating their environmental performance and setting metrics.
