Silver Lake Partners – Isabel Friedman – 2021
Goals
Silver Lake is a leading private equity firm focused on technology investing with over $83 billion AUM. With increasing interest in ESG matters from LPs and portfolio companies, Silver Lake set out to build out its sustainability resources and capabilities. To build out ESG resources for portfolio companies, Silver Lake hired Climate Corps Fellow, Isabel Friedman, to (1) partner with several companies early in their sustainability efforts to support the launch of ESG programs, and (2) write a guide to operationalizing ESG that can be used as a resource for any company seeking support.
Solutions
Isabel approached the challenge in three phases over the course of ten weeks:
- Assess needs: Isabel met with select portfolio companies, internal stakeholders, and legal counsel to identify the salient questions, opportunities, and best practices for effective ESG programs.
- Research and draft: With a list of topics, Isabel researched and synthesized findings into a first draft of the guide. Topics included an overview of standard-setting organizations (e.g., SASB, GRI, TCFD), approaches to net zero, and best practices for disclosure and communication among other ESG considerations.
- Gather feedback and iterate: Isabel then shared the guide with the select portfolio companies as a tool for their ESG planning and to gather direct feedback on making the materials more useful. The collaboration helped the companies develop internal ESG knowledge, identify and prioritize material sustainability initiatives, and define “what good looks like” at their stage of ESG maturity.
Potential Impact
Putting the ESG materials to use, the select portfolio companies developed plans to take inventory of their existing ESG activities, identify gaps, define their objectives, and prepare to meet the growing expectations for corporate citizenship of employees, customers, investors, and public markets.
