Dear Fellow Supporters of Sustainability,

Yesterday the Harvard Business Review published this article by Benedicte Montgomery, Vinay Shandal, Dave Young (all of BCG), and me (where I am a Senior Advisor). I have also posted it on LinkedIn.

The piece is based on over 100 interviews of leading GPs, LPs, and industry experts. I would like to thank senior editor Eben Harrell and articles editor Martha Spaulding for the excellent support they gave us in writing the piece. Its quality is much the better due to their deft editorial hands.

Our basic thesis, and perhaps a surprising one to many, is that we believe the PE industry can take a lead in sustainability.  We explain why that is the case and give evidence from practice. Although late to the table, the industry is now taking sustainability very seriously from both an ESG and impact point of view. Due to space limitations we focused on the former but plan on writing shorter and more focused pieces in the months to come, including on the latter.

I would not pretend to say that we are describing the entire industry, but we have a point of view on where the leaders are at and where the industry needs to go in the future. It needs to keep changing if it is going to continue to deliver its historical high returns and meet the expectations of its many stakeholders.

While the content of our piece won’t be a surprise to leading GPs and LPs, we do hope it points the way for where all the others need to go.

I hope you enjoy the piece. Feel free to share it with others, especially those in the PE industry that you think would benefit from it.

Kind Regards,

Bob