KKR green programme adds four firms

Equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) has extended its money-saving environmental management programme to 20 per cent of its portfolio, including two companies located outside the US.

KKR introduced its Green Portfolio Program to four new companies in a bid to reduce their environmental impacts in the areas of waste, paper, chemical use, and energy and water consumption. First Data and Lehigh Phoenix in the US, Oriental Brewery in Korea, and Tarkett in France, will now establish their baselines and monitor performance under the programme, which was created in 2008 in partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund.

KKR now has a dozen companies participating in the Green Portfolio Program, including Accellent, Biomet, Dollar General, HCA, Primedia, Sealy, SunGard Data Systems, and US Foodservice.

"The business case for environmental management has never been stronger," KKR co-founder Henry Kravis said in a statement on Monday. "The Green Portfolio Program highlights that environmental performance and business performance can go hand-in-hand."

The pilot programme focused on three companies – Primedia, Sealy and US Foodservice - and ran for six months during 2008. In that time, the three companies identified opportunities to reduce waste, fuel, energy, and paper use that added up to $16.4 million (£10.5m). Their work focused on evaluating their environmental impacts, devising mitigation strategies, establishing baseline metrics and monitoring progress.

Results from Accellent, Biomet, Dollar General, HCA and SunGard Data Systems, which were added in 2009, are slated for release this spring.

The Green Portfolio Project approach has been dubbed "Green Returns", which includes tools, best practices and case studies for the private equity industry in targeting greenhouse gas emissions, water, waste, forest products and priority chemicals.

This article first appeared at GreenBiz.com