Eco-Efficiency - How Every Business Can Help Protect Our Environment and Increase Profits
Originally, when Henry Kravis and George Roberts established Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co (KKR) in the mid-seventies with some assistance from the First Chicago Corporation, the company’s focus was in bootstrap buyouts. But only last year they have put together a novel green proposal that focuses not alone on maximum profit margins, but also on the ecological impact of the companies they control.
Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co’s Henry Kravis and the the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) got together in 2008, hoping to make environmentally sound business operation a widely accepted principle. The coalition was forged to help resolve fundamental green issues, for instance water pollution, hazardous waste, intemperate consumption of water resources, and hazardous chemicals.
Eco-efficiency (the term was originally promoted by the WBCSD) is the procedure deployed to achieve these aims, by using techniques like waste reduction, fuel economy and recycling programs. Although the project was a tremendous success, people just didn’t recognize how far reaching the consequences were until Ken Mehlman, the head of the project and global public affairs, studied the first year’s profits.
Only at that point did Ken notice that utilizing eco-efficiency was not solely helping to maintain the environment, but it was also saving firms a great deal of money, making the program almost an immediate hit. Nearly all of the business organizations affiliated to KKR and Ken Mehlman now utilize eco-efficiency. If you look at the fact that the group is valued at $86,000,000,000, you can imagine what an enormous accomplishment this actually was. The Green Portfolio project is expanding to include new opportunities. The Climate Corps Program established by the Environmental Defense Fund is a good example of this, it campaigns for ecologically friendly principles to students taking an MBA.
More recently, Ken Mehlman has been working closely with KKR to produce analytical tools that a range of companies can use to measure and oversee a number of resources. These products can measure a company’s progress and discover any problem areas. Henry Kravis, the KKC, and the Environmental Defense Fund have encouraged all sorts of businesses to go green. These developments have simplified the process for companies in every industry and demonstrated to the world that making profits need not entail the hefty price of damaging the environment.