March 5, 2010
Business and Eco-Efficiency - Ken Mehlman of Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. And the Environmental Defense Fund
Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co (KKR) was founded by Henry Kravis and his partner George Roberts in the 70’s with the support of the First Chicago Corporation. However, aiming to make their portfolio companies and acquisitions greener, KKR have set up a unique venture that has entirely changed the way business concerns and environmental activists work.
Environmentally aware business procedures became more widely accepted a year ago when Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co’s Henry Kravis and the the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) merged. Issues like climate change and inordinate water consumption are high on their agenda. In order to attain these goals, they deploy eco-efficiency; this calls for concepts such as using clean energy, recycling programs, and maximum use of renewable resources. Although the project was a tremendous success, no-one understood how important the results really were until Ken Mehlman, the executive responsible for the program, studied the first year’s profits.
Ken who graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in 1988, has also served as Chief of Staff for Texas 12th Congressional District Representative Kay Granger, became Managing Director and Head of Global Public Affairs at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, LLP in 2008, is, moreover, a trustee of the Strong American Schools Foundation and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and currently serves as a member of the Senior Advisory Committee of the Harvard University Institute of Politics, the Council on Foreign Relations Climate Change Task Force, and the executive leadership cabinet of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Foundation, found that applying eco-efficiency was not just helping the environment, but it was also saving a colossal range of companies a great deal of money, and consequently the project became almost an instant hit. Currently, KKR and Ken Mehlman have succeeded in getting virtually all of their firms actively taking part in eco-efficiency. If you consider that this portfolio of companies is valued at almost 100.000,000,000 USD, you can see what a challenge this really is. The initial program is expanding to encompass new and innovative initiatives. For example, Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co linked up with the EDF’s Climate Corps Program an organization which instructs MBA students how to develop and start cost-effective, green techniques.
Recently, Ken Mehlman has cooperated closely with Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co to create metrics that all sorts of business organizations can use to quantify and oversee resources. With this information available, any sort of business can study each of their everyday activities and find out how they can resolve any issues while simultaneously permitting staff to find out how ecologically friendly they are becoming.
The business community has been transformed by the ground-breaking efforts of these organizations. Their visionary ideas have made cutting back their ecological impact less problematic for business organizations in every sector and proved to the world that making profits need not entail the hefty price of negatively impacting our planet.
Comments Off