Eco-Efficiency: How Businesses Can Protect Our Environment and Even save Money
Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co (KKR) was established in the mid 70’s and orginally their main business was in highly leveraged transactions. More recently aiming to make their portfolio companies and acquisitions more ecologically friendly and more profitable as well, they have rolled out an innovative venture which has completely transformed the method by which businesses and environmental agencies work forever.
Green business processes went mainstream in 2008 when Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co’s Henry Kravis and the non-profit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) merged. These companies wanted to campaign against many important environmental matters, that include toxic chemical use, greenhouse gas emissions, absurd water consumption, and hazardous waste. Eco-efficiency (the term was originally coined by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development WBCSD) fashions their mission’s framework, through applying techniques such as using clean energy, recycling programs and waste reduction. The Green Portfolio Project was initially well received, nevertheless the management did not even realize the scope of the benefits of the project until Ken Mehlman, the man in charge of the program, reviewed the figures from the project when it had been functioning for its first twelve months.
Knocking off everyone’s expectations, Ken saw that the project not only cut back on ecological impact, but was increasing the the net profit from all their business concerns too. At the time of writing, Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co and Ken Mehlman have virtually all of their firms actively engaged in the project. And, when you consider that the group has a 2009 business portfolio worth 86,000,000,000 dollars, you may be sure that this was not a simple achievement. The initial Green Portfolio project has developed beyond its basic purpose and nowadays includes new and innovative enterprises. For instance, KKR linked up with the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corps Program which instructs interns taking an MBA how to promote cost effective, environmentally friendly techniques.
KKR and Ken Mehlman have been formulating metrics that manage various resources. These tools can evaluate an organization’s environmental impact and discover any problem areas. Henry Kravis, the KKC, and the Environmental Defense Fund have encouraged all sorts of businesses to reduce their environmental impact. Their developments have made cutting back their environmental impact simpler for companies in every sector and illustrated that running a profitable business need not entail the hefty price of negatively impacting our planet.
