Responsible Investing

At Sagemount, we embed Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) throughout the entire investment lifecycle - during ESG due diligence, through active ownership and at exit.

As a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI), we actively engage our portfolio companies to ensure best-practice approaches to ESG during ownership.

What is ESG?

At its simplest, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) refers to how businesses consider non-financial factors, such as environmental issues, social impacts and good governance practices, within their operations, products produced and services provided.

Through active ownership, private equity firms are uniquely positioned to support best-practice approaches to ESG at scale across various sectors.

At Sagemount, we look at ESG both from a risk perspective, but also as an opportunity to drive value creation. We align our ESG program closely with our Alpha Plan to generate sustainable financial returns for investors and our communities.

Download our Annual Responsible Investment Report

ESG Investing & How it Works

Many investors have shown increased interest in placing their money where their values are, which is why we align our ESG program with plans that generate sustainable financial returns for both investors and communities. Here are a few of the benefits associated with ESG investing.

Frequently Asked Questions About ESG Investing

How is ESG Investing Different From Sustainable Investing?

The two are similar, but ESG investing screens companies based on criteria related to social, environmental and governance. Meanwhile, sustainability considers instead the impact of those decisions on the world.

Prioritize

We employ the "Sagemount ESG Standard", our proprietary ESG assessment methodology, focused on ensuring quality ESG management: best-in-class data privacy and cyber security: diverse and engaged employees; and portfolio company alignment with science-based emissions reduction targets.

Based on industry best-practices and evolving regulatory standards, the Standard assesses and monitors portfolio company ESG performance throughout the investment period to help institute ESG best-practices, build resilience, and enhance their exit positioning.

ESG Monitoring

Our ESG and Growth Factors team engage all portfolio companies to achieve alignment with the Sagemount ESG Standard during our holding period. The Standard requires companies to improve performance and achieve targets across four areas:

  • Governance Practices

    Ensuring best-practice approaches to ethics and compliance

  • Data Privacy & Security

    Implementing policies, procedures, and controls to ensure better privacy and security management in an increasingly digital world

  • Workforce Engagement & Diversity

    Ensuring employee welfare and promoting a diverse and inclusive workforce

  • Climate Action

    Setting science-based climate reduction targets to support the transition to a low carbon economy

Industry Partnerships

Invest

Through the $50+ million Bregal Investments Sustainable Development Fund, Sagemount provides loans with attractive terms to portfolio companies to fund ESG improvement projects.

Such loans may seek improvement within the company’s own operations such as renewable energy projects, upstream in the supply chain or downstream at the customer level.

Bregal Helps - Success Stories

Connectria's Sustainable Development Loan

Energy is a central component for data centers across the globe, and the industry is predicted to account for 13% of total worldwide carbon emissions. Connectria, a Sagemount portfolio company and market leader in cloud solution services, wanted to help minimize the industry's environmental impact.

A loan from the Bregal Sustainable Development Fund help lead to 1.4GWh of annual energy savings and emissions reductions of at least 1,500 tCO2e per year.

Contribute

Sagemount actively contribute to supporting our portfolio company communities through the Bregal Helps Initiative - a $3+ million COVID-19 relief fund established in 2020 to help communities affected by the pandemic.

Going forward, the initiative will continue to support the most vulnerable in our communities with the overarching mission to provide equal opportunities for all.

Dedicated ESG Team

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