ABSTRACT

At this stage of Asia's development there is a need, and an opportunity, to establish a validation methodology that better gauges ESG implementation and sustainability aspirations in Asian private equity. Private equity, like major public market and debt investors such as Blackrock, has adopted language that suggests a proactive approach to ESG management. However, process-oriented ESG compliance presently far outstrips evidence of tangible contributions to ESG objectives and outcomes. This article describes a taxonomy of common approaches to ESG investment practices in Asian private equity and discusses their shortcomings. It then presents ‘Deep ESG’ as an alternative approach that operationalizes ESG and sustainability metrics more holistically than existing frameworks. The Deep ESG framework enables a higher level of market-led intentionality that better informs institutional investors, regulators, communities, and employees as they evaluate private equity's ‘balance sheet’ of ESG outcomes. By investing in tools for goal setting, measurement and evaluation and applying them consistently across all target and portfolio companies, private equity managers can pivot away from a defensive approach by working with stakeholders to shape constructive solutions to urgent sustainability goals.

摘要

在亚洲发展的现阶段，有必要也有机会建立一种验证方法，以更好地衡量亚洲私募股权的 ESG 实施情况和可持续发展愿望。与主要公开市场和贝莱德等债务投资者一样，私募股权公司也采用了建议采取积极主动的 ESG 管理方法的措辞。然而，目前以流程为导向的 ESG 合规性远远超过了对 ESG 目标和成果的实际贡献。本文描述了亚洲私募股权 ESG 投资实践的常见方法的分类，并讨论了它们的缺点。然后，它提出了“深度 ESG”作为一种替代方法，比现有框架更全面地实施 ESG 和可持续发展指标。深度 ESG 框架能够实现更高水平的市场主导意向性，在机构投资者、监管机构、社区和员工评估私募股权的 ESG 结果“资产负债表”时更好地为他们提供信息。通过投资目标设定、衡量和评估工具，并在所有目标公司和投资组合公司中一致应用这些工具，私募股权管理者可以摆脱防御性方法，与利益相关者合作，为紧迫的可持续发展目标制定建设性解决方案。