The Story of Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co & the Environmental Defense Fund
When Henry Kravis and George Roberts established Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co (KKR) in the 1970’s with some support from the First Chicago Corporation, their main business was in leveraged buyouts. Lately in the pursuit of making the companies in their portfolio more ecologically friendly, they have established an extraordinary green project that has transformed the method by which businesses and environmental activists carry on their day-to-day business.
When Henry Kravis from KKR and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) joined forces just a year ago green issues went mainstream. Their mission is to offer encouragement to their affiliated firms in opposing environmental threats like hazardous emissions and any imprudent consumption of water resources.
Eco-efficiency (the phrase was initially coined by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development WBCSD) is the procedure deployed to achieve these objectives, using policies such as maximum use of renewable resources, fuel economy and using clean energy. Impressive though it was the management did not even understand the range of the project’s advantages until Ken Mehlman, the head of the Green Portfolio Project and global public affairs, reviewed the project following its first year in operation.
Only then did Ken Mehlman realize that using eco-efficiency was not just protecting the local environment, but it was also saving businesses a great deal of money. Nearly all of the firms owned by KKR and Ken Mehlman nowadays are participating in the program. And, when you consider that the group has a current business portfolio estimated at 86,000,000,000 dollars, you can be sure this was not an easy feat. Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co with the assistance of Ken Mehlman are further extending the original program. To illustrate, KKR linked up with the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corps Program an enterprise which instructs students taking an MBA how to encourage cost-effective, ecologically friendly techniques. KKR and Ken Mehlman have made the effort to develop products that evaluate and administer various resources. Tools such as these let a business organization to assess their progress and discover any areas which may need to be re-evaluated. The business world has been transformed forever by the ecologically centered work of Henry Kravis, the KKC, and the Environmental Defense Fund. These developments have set a benchmark for business organizations in any sector and established that making profits need not entail the hefty price of negatively impacting our planet.
Comments Off