Sustainability at Ardian: a core driver of long term value creation

28 September 2026
Sustainability, Ardian

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Sustainability at Ardian is a powerful driver of value creation, embedded in our investment strategy and amplified by data, AI, and operational expertise to deliver resilient, high performing businesses.

Sustainability at Ardian: a core driver of long term value creation

At Ardian, sustainability is a strategic lever for value creation and preservation, fully embedded in the investment model rather than a mere compliance tool. Through an integrated approach closely aligned with investment teams, and advanced use of data and AI, Ardian turns ESG challenges into measurable operational gains, enhanced business resilience, competitiveness, innovation and growth opportunities.
Sustainability’s contributions are felt in many areas, from mitigating risk to enabling growth initiatives. Despite varying approaches globally and regionally to sustainability-related regulation, investors’ attention in this area is intensifying with many seeking a more granular picture of sustainability’s role as a catalyst for financial value creation and protection.

“More than ever, sustainability focuses on business resilience, but to realize that you need an integrated model and innovative capabilities.”

Guillaume Cravero, Global Head of Sustainability and Europe Policy Strategy

Integrating Sustainability to enhance performance and operational value at Ardian

Our twelve sustainability experts work alongside the investment teams, portfolio companies and GPs to capitalize on opportunities. This closely integrated approach allows us to develop tailor-made sustainability solutions for direct investments and business activities. Our sustainability practices improve the performance of our portfolios by driving operational efficiency. At Nevel in Finland, a district heating and energy company in our Infrastructure portfolio, we reduced its carbon footprint by modernizing its power plants and using more biomass as fuel, while increasing earnings. Our focus on human capital topics such as increasing employee engagement and improving health and safety practices contributes to improved social performance and reduced risk. Growing customer awareness of sustainability issues is reshaping product and service development and creating new market opportunities. Our sustainability strategy actively supports product innovation, enabling portfolio companies to anticipate market shifts and convert rising demand into new revenue streams. For example, DIAM, a French company in our Expansion portfolio and a leader in merchandising materials, is securing major new clients in the luxury and cosmetics ecosystem by offering lower-impact products and solutions. The benefits of a sustainability-driven approach to value creation are reflected in lower costs of debt, since targeted ESG practices can secure companies access to more attractive financing conditions through sustainability-linked loans (SLLs). Among our majority-controlled portfolio companies that have taken out SLLs, average annual interest expense has fallen by $250,000. This improves these companies’ access to liquidity and demonstrates again how measurable sustainability improvements link directly to stronger value creation, lower risk and greater resilience.

227

We collect large volumes of data from 227 stakeholders
98%

of Ardian's AUM covered by sustainability data collection in 2025
78,000

sustainability questions answered

Data management and AI at Ardian: turning Sustainability insights into measurable value

AI is an accelerator for our activities and a key strategic asset because it generates market intelligence that we can share with our clients. In the long run, it can also create a bridge between our Sustainability program and our companies’ financial data. We monitor sustainability performance across our portfolios and GP relationships and collect large volumes of data from 227 portfolio companies, assets and GPs across ten strategies. Together this represented 98% of Ardian’s AuM in 2025. This information underpins our regulatory and contractual reporting, allows us to pinpoint the most material opportunities and feeds into the sustainability roadmaps we create for each company and asset. It helps us set targets, measure financial value creation and back-test our engagement actions. Data quality is critical. At Ardian, we benefit from a long history of data collection and analysis and a robust ESG database, which give us a strong foundation. By collecting high-quality, verified information we enable the Sustainability team to design dedicated roadmaps and act as a business partner for our deal teams throughout the investment lifecycle. Within Ardian, we operate as a center of excellence.

Data‑driven sustainability and AI strengthen Ardian’s partnerships with LPs

We apply the same data-driven approach to our relationships with Ardian’s investors, using the LP Barometer, our proprietary AI-powered data analysis tool we developed with our IT and Data Science teams. In 2025, we received a record number of sustainability-related questions from LPs: 78,000 sustainability questions from 314 LPs (up 34% from 2024). These questions were also more sophisticated and complex than previously – and they were looking for concrete data. The LP Barometer continuously analyzes the sustainability questions we receive from investors so that we can identify market trends by geography, understand our clients’ varying priorities, and structure tailored solutions that meet them. The LP Barometer also illustrates two key features of our overall strategy: it is client-driven and focused on leveraging data that delivers tangible value creation.

Sustainability at Ardian: a core driver of long term value creation