Astounding Words

When Henry Kravis and his partner George Roberts set up Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co (KKR) in the seventies with the support of the First Chicago Corporation, the company’s focus was in highly leveraged transactions. Moving further, hoping to make their portfolio of companies greener, KKR have set up an exceptional green proposal that has fundamentally transformed the way businesses and environmental activists function.

KKR’s Henry Kravis and the New York based Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) got together last year, hoping to make green business practices an accepted idea. Their company mission is to encourage their associated companies to help resolve practices which may destroy the environment e.g. soil contamination not to forget any lavish consumption of water resources. Eco-efficiency (a term initially submitted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development) is the procedure employed to achieve these objectives, utilizing environmentally friendly techniques such as maximum use of renewable resources, reducing the dispersion of toxic chemicals and waste reduction. Irrespective of the fact that the project was an enormous success, staff just did not realize how fantastic the consequences actually were until Ken Mehlman, the person responsible for the program, looked over the figures for the first 12 months.

Much to everyone’s surprise, Ken learned that this program not only increased environmental awareness, but also increased the profits from all their business concerns too. Just about all of the commercial organizations affiliated to KKR and Ken Mehlman nowadays are involved in eco-efficiency principles. However, when you consider that the group has a 2009 business portfolio with a worth of eighty six billion dollars, you can be sure this was no easy see what a huge achievement this is. The Green Portfolio project has evolved far beyond its initial purpose and today includes new enterprises. For example, KKR linked up with the EDF’s Climate Corps Program an organization which teaches MBA students how to introduce financially strong, environmentally friendly principles. Moreover, Ken Mehlman has been in close collaboration with KKR to formulate metrics which businesses can utilize to measure and manage resources. Tools like these permit a company see how green they are and identify any practices which might need to be focused on.

Henry Kravis, the KKR, and the Environmental Defense Fund are visionaries in the world of green business. So, in conclusion, the work of these organizations has made green business practice not only viable, but commercially desirable, and their revolutionary ideas are setting a new standard in the business world of today.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 1:50 pm and is filed under Baker's Dozen, Social. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.