The History of Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co and the Environmental Defense Fund
Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co (KKR) was founded in the mid-seventies and in the beginning their main business was in ‘bootstrap’ buyouts. But moving beyond, hoping to make the businesses in their portfolio greener and more profitable to boot, KKR have set up an innovative enterprise which has dramatically changed the method by which businesses and environmental activists operate.
When Henry Kravis from KKR and the non-profit environmental advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) joined forces in 2008 green matters all of a sudden turned into a mainstream concern. Issues like climate change and high consumption of water resources feature high on their list of objectives.
Eco-efficiency (the term was initially submitted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development) is the formula deployed to achieve these objectives, by employing ecologically friendly policies like using clean energy, recycling programs and reducing the waste of resources. Although the program was a colossal success, no-one understood how extensive the consequences really were until Ken Mehlman, the man responsible for the program, analyzed the first year’s profits.
Eclipsing everybody’s expectations, Ken saw that eco-efficiency not only increased environmental awareness, but was increasing the the profit from every business organization too. Just about all of the companies owned by KKR and Ken Mehlman at present are actively engaged in eco-efficiency techniques. Seeing that the group is valued at nearly $100 billion dollars, you can imagine what an accomplishment this really is.
The initial Green Portfolio project has developed far beyond its primary purpose and at present includes new and innovative enterprises. To illustrate, Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co linked up with the EDF’s Climate Corps Program that teaches MBA interns how to design and initiate financially shrewd, planet friendly techniques. KKR and Ken Mehlman have made the effort to develop metrics and other relevant systems that can measure and administer resources. With this information available, any type of business can measure all of their everyday operations and ascertain how they can resolve any issues while simultaneously letting them to determine how environmentally friendly they are.
Henry Kravis, the KKC, and the Environmental Defense Fund have encouraged all sorts of businesses to become more environmentally friendly. So, to summarize, these systems have made environmentally friendly business techniques not only viable, but commercially desirable, and their novel ideas are setting a new standard in the business world of today.
