Energy Impact Partners (EIP), a global investment platform leading the transition to a sustainable future, released its fourth annual Impact and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report. EIP is committed to driving transparency, inclusion and collaboration throughout the venture capital industry as well as accelerating the clean energy transition. This year’s report included additional climate reporting, including Scope 3 emissions and four portfolio company case studies highlighting the firm’s investment strategy and real-world impact.
Over the course of 2021, EIP’s impact continued to expand significantly with the launch of a new fund focused on deep decarbonization technology (Frontier Deep Decarbonization Fund), the launch of a fund dedicated to creating a diverse clean energy transition (Elevate Future Fund), and support in the formation of two new impact and ESG industry groups. Additionally, the firm fully offset its own carbon footprint and worked with its 40+ corporate coalition members to increase their commitments to the energy transition.
Key highlights from this year’s report include:
- EIP’s portfolio companies enabled over 6.4 million metric tons of carbon savings from actual product sales during 2021 and an additional 75 million metric tons over the lives of the installed products. This is approximately double last year’s enabled savings.
- EIP’s new deep decarbonization fund’s companies are projected to enable savings of an additional 93 million metric tons of CO2 during the next ten years.
- Weighted by ownership share, EIP’s enabled current annual savings are over fifty times as large as its carbon footprint.
- Our coalition of strategic investors have adopted over $1billion of new technologies from our portfolio companies.
- 95% of EIP’s portfolio companies have a policy to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) or are adopting one in 2022, compared to 83% in 2020.
- EIP’s portfolio supports over 15,000+ jobs and created over 3,000+ new jobs in 2021 alone.
“EIP was designed specifically to accelerate the clean energy transformation by investing in innovations that will drive systemic change,” said Dr. Peter Fox-Penner, Chief Impact Officer at Energy Impact Partners. “An essential component of this process is measuring the impact of our firm and our investments. We are proud of our continued commitment to transparency and expanded reporting and hope that we inspire others to follow suit.”
Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a new ruling that aims to prevent misleading or deceptive claims about climate commitments by funds and increase the amount of ESG information those funds disclose to their investors. The proposals aim to tackle “greenwashing,” or practices of misleading shareholders over what is in their holdings and highlights the importance and necessity of accurate and transparent reporting in the financial industry. Unlike many other private equity funds, EIP has been openly reporting its climate impacts and metrics since 2019.
EIP’s 2022 ESG and Impact Performance Report details its progress around its investment strategies, efforts to promote DE&I, and the impact of its portfolio companies’ activities in 2021. The firm measures impact on the environment and society in terms of quantitative and qualitative metrics such as carbon emissions, fuel savings, water savings as well as a broader set of data on the ESG attributes of its portfolio companies.
“EIP’s work across multiple geographies and investment segments confirms that funds dedicated to positive impact must integrate their mission into each step of the investment process whilst supporting portfolio companies as they fine tune their methods and measurements. This report demonstrates that EIP is optimizing in both critical areas,” said Nazo Moosa, Managing Partner at EIP Europe.
Although this is EIP’s fourth public report, the firm will continue to improve reporting metrics in the coming years. In addition to expanding its investment platform to include more impactful portfolio companies, the firm is intensifying its ESG-related work within its portfolio and its investment partners to support more comprehensive measurement of Scope 3 emissions, improve the environmental attributes of EIP’s workplaces and collaborate more intensely with industry peers to better advance impact and reporting practices.
For more information about EIP’s ESG and Impact Performance Report, please visit www.energyimpactpartners.com.
Source: BusinessWire