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Climate leadership within our portfolio

11 January 2023

Towards net zero

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How we work with ICG portfolio companies to set and meet Science Based Targets

In brief:

  • ICG’s Science Based Targets were approved by SBT over a year ago
  • We believe setting targets consistent with established climate science build competitiveness by driving innovation and increasing resilience
  • In this short article, hear from the leaders of three ICG portfolio companies at different stages of their own net zero journeys

ICG has a long-standing commitment to sustainability in our investment process and indeed, we’ve sought to make consistent progress in embedding ESG (environmental, social and governance) factors into our investment strategy. We were very proud in November 2021 to be among the first cohort of alternative asset managers to set approve science based emissions targets for our portfolio. Our targets support our overall strategy to meet net zero by 2040.

We believe that setting a Science Based Target (SBT) actually builds competitiveness into a business model – it drives innovation, it increases resilience. We’ve seen this play out in our portfolio already.

Our portfolio companies are at different points along their journey towards setting SBTs.

In the short video found above and quotes below, we consider three examples, hearing from members of ICG portfolio company leadership teams.

Circet – Early Stage

Technical support: Setting emissions baseline to identify reduction targets

Philippe Lamazou, CEO, Circet:

“Circet is a pioneer in providing turnkey solutions to the global telecom industry. When we partnered with ICG in 2021, ESG was among the first topics of discussion.

Climate change, in particular can have significant adverse impacts on our clients, and the services we deliver every day and we understand our responsibility to act. Developing a Science Based Target is an important step in that journey.

We welcome the idea of aligning our business with the transition to net zero economy. After nearly nine months of work, we released our first ESG report and completed our first carbon footprint assessment.

ICG helped us a lot to create a plan for calculating our baseline and set of targets. Our immediate focus, measuring other indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the phased replacement of the company’s car fleet with electric vehicles.

Setting a Science Based Target is not an easy task. Perhaps the most challenging part is devising a carbon reduction plan that can deliver ambitious reductions while supporting the growth of the company – in the short and the long term.

Now we are thinking about how to expand Circet’s energy transition solutions for our clients, running out dedicated tools such as smart energy management and electric car charging stations and we look forward to making continued progress in the months and years to come.”

Supporting Education Group – Middle Stage

Strategic planning: refining SEG’s plan to reduce emissions in order to align with SBT requirements

Caroline Cheale, Managing Director, SEG:

“Supporting Education Group (SEG) is a group of companies who work around enriching the lives of pupils and the education that we deliver.”

Samantha Raven, Strategy Director and SBT Lead, SEG:

“So we’ve said two emission reduction targets. One is a 25.2% reduction in near-term emissions by 2025 and the second is a net zero target by 2050.

The next steps for us will be about sharing that commitment, sharing the fact that we have our targets approved by SBT. We will then be – importantly – working towards meeting those targets.

It’s very much been a journey with ICG. We’ve gone to ICG seeking advice, their expertise and their experience. That’s fed into how we think about our commitments to the environment on a broader scope. They support us to set our baseline emissions, but also to think about our employee initiatives and schemes that we would need to put in place in order to meet our targets.”

Cheale:

“And what we want to do is provide a real positive way of benchmarking our progress, holding ourselves to account and really showing our commitment to helping this part of our framework.”

Alvinesa – Late Stage

Measuring progress: implementing approach and tracking progress against approved SBT targets

Jordi Ferre, CEO, Alvinesa:

“At Alvinesa, we actually upcycle and transform agricultural core products such as wine grape pomace, into natural ingredients that promote healthy living. Sustainability and circularity is in our DNA.

Our business model here is very, very sustainable. We operate with a very low carbon footprint. Energy-wise we use our own biomass created by the process to create the steam that actually runs the plant. In 2021, we actually built a solar energy plant next to our facility here and that can generate up to 30% of our electricity needs at certain times.

ICG has been instrumental in helping us since they came into the business. They have experts based in London that are helping us in setting the goals and making sure that those are achieved.”

Manuela Martin-Zarco, Quality & ESG Director, Alvinesa:

“In order to achieve our 2030 target, we will need to make meaningful changes to the way we operate.

We have two areas of focus, we will target the reduction of emissions of our fleet vehicles. Secondly, we must switch to 100% renewable electricity. Thanks to the support of ICG and the Board, we have started the expansion of our current solar photovoltaic park to assure the energy security for the company through this renewable energy.”

It’s been very exciting to see the amount of progress made so far. ICG remains committed to decarbonising our investment portfolio and indeed to advance our progress toward a net zero economy by 2040.

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