New Mountain Capital

At a Glance

Industry

Financial Services and Insurance

Project Type

Sustainability and Energy Management Strategy

Year

2020

Location

New York, NY

Summary

Pamela Kauppila introduced new tools and processes to help New Mountain Capital further operationalize ESG oversight in the investment process.

Goals

New Mountain Capital, a middle-market private equity firm, has emphasized the importance of “business building” and social responsibility during the investment process since inception. The Firm enlisted Pamela Kauppila to enhance its existing ESG framework and drive actionable outcomes.

Solutions

Kauppila assessed NMC’s ESG framework, analyzed data, and vetted tools to develop four recommendations: 

  • Materiality Focus. She demonstrated the utility of a materiality analysis across industries and showed how it provides a framework to deeply assess ESG risks/opportunities and identify specific follow-ups. 

  • Enhance Tools. Kauppila analyzed data to develop ESG dashboards to drive key discussions. Kauppila also proposed new/refined questions for the annual ESG survey to enhance data collection. She reviewed tools/questions with deal teams to refine further.

  • Improve ESG training. To strengthen existing ESG training, Kauppila outlined an expanded workshop that provides greater ESG context, relevancy and hands-on-training for new tools. 

  • Structure, resources and goal setting. Provided recommendations on the ESG Committee structure, resources it could provide and potential goals.

Impact

Kauppila introduced new tools for the investment teams to help enhance their ESG analysis at each portfolio company and during the due diligence process. Through improved training and a focus on materiality, the ESG assessment will be better streamlined into the investment team’s due diligence and monitoring workstreams. By becoming a resource center, the ESG team will facilitate ESG initiatives among the portfolio companies as they consider new policies and goals.  

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