ESG in our investment strategy
We are committed to a policy of responsible investment from pre-screening to exit and believe that ESG integration across our portfolio creates value for our Shareholders and makes our portfolio companies more attractive for investment.
Whilst we aim to invest in businesses and entrepreneurs who recognise and embrace the need for more sustainable practices, we don’t expect or demand the finished product, but instead ask for a commitment to meet or surpass our ESG targets during the lifetime of our investment with our support. More detail can be found here.
Investment Team ESG training
Earlier this year we delivered an ESG training event for the Investment and Executive Teams which detailed aggregated portfolio ESG performance across directly held investments and provided practical guidance for the Partnership and wider Investment Team to utilise ESG data collected from the portfolio for both initial and ongoing performance tracking, in alignment with our ESG Policy.
The training also explored the use of longitudinal data to highlight key champion and improvement areas and conduct a benchmarking exercise to surface trends and commonalities within the portfolio.
ESG in our investment process
Pre-screening
We are mindful of the general themes surrounding ESG and our role as a responsible investor when considering potential investments.
Screening
We screen all prospective portfolio companies against our ESG Exclusion List which contains various assets we will not invest into.
Due Diligence
We distribute our ESG Framework to identify risks as part of the diligence process. The output of this Framework is used to help inform our investment decision. Significant ESG risks are flagged and escalated to General Counsel.
Investment Committee
We outline ESG risks and opportunities as part of qualitative assessment in the Investment Committee paper. Relevant ESG topics are explored as part of the Investment Committee discussion and decision-making process.
Ownership
We monitor portfolio companies’ performance through annual distribution of our ESG Framework and deliver bespoke ESG Events to help with integration of ESG strategies.
Exit
We aim to capture the nature of ESG progress made through the lifetime of the investment by collation of historic monitoring and reporting data obtained during the investment.