Responsible social & corporate investments, CSR investment

Positive impact through responsible investment

We firmly believe that success in our industry involves more than just excellent financial returns. This is why we have been developing Ardian’s approach to responsible investment for more than 10 years. We are constantly experimenting and learning so that we can improve the way we measure ESG performance in our investments and set meaningful targets for improvement. We report in detail on these issues to our LPs and actively support industry initiatives to promote responsible investment.

“Ardian empowers individuals to collectively create sustainable value for all stakeholders” This is our company’s vision for sustainability, which draws together the essential elements of our approach – Ardian’s role as a catalyst for change; the importance of each individual’s actions and the power of collaboration; and the need to ensure the value we create together benefits all stakeholders.

Our Responsible Investment Policy
Our team

126

companies in our Buyout, Expansion, Infrastructure and Real Estate portfolios have received a tailored sustainability roadmap since 2009
68%

of the companies in our Buyout, Expansion and Infrastructure portfolios that are part of the Ardian Sustainability Program have put in place employee profit-sharing schemes during our ownership
170 GPs

responded to our seventh Fund of Funds portfolio monitoring survey, up 10% vs. 2018

Ardian empowers individuals to collectively create sustainable value for all stakeholders.

Our world is facing many challenges: growing inequalities, and climate change. We think that the financial sector has a vital role to play and that is why at Ardian we empower individuals to collectively create sustainable value for all stakeholders.

Sustainability Program and main priorities

Our aim is to maximize Ardian’s positive contribution to society (people and planet) and ensure our company can grow sustainably by incorporating Environmental, Social and Governance considerations into our investment process and throughout our operations. Through our investments and corporate actions, we endeavour to address the four main priorities for Sustainability at Ardian: Climate Change, Diversity & Equal Opportunities, Profit Sharing and Governance & Ethics.

Climate Change

Ardian aims to take a leading role in addressing the global challenge of climate change. We actively support multiple industry-wide initiatives to address this threat and we are committed to helping our portfolio companies identify emissions and carbon trajectories, and develop effective operational plans to reduce their carbon emissions. At the corporate level, climate change is also a source of major concern and several employee-led initiatives are aimed at reducing Ardian’s carbon footprint throughout our offices and operations.

Diversity and Equal Opportunities

We believe greater diversity in our organization will both fulfil Ardian’s social obligations and improve our performance. Our membership of the global Investor Leadership Network represents a public commitment to improve gender balance within Ardian and within our portfolio companies and funds. Beyond gender balance, Ardian is committed to developing and strengthening Diversity and Inclusion throughout our company. We also monitor diversity indicators for our portfolio companies and our Fund of Funds holdings.

Profit Sharing

Our approach to responsible investment is rooted in the idea of sharing, beginning with our decision in 2008 to share capital gains at exit with all employees of our portfolio companies whenever possible. Through our annual engagement program, we actively encourage all our portfolio companies to establish their own profit-sharing mechanism for employees.

Governance and Ethics

As Ardian’s size and impact continues to grow, so does our responsibility to set the best possible example for our wider community of stakeholders. To ensure this, Ardian favors the appointment of independent members to Management Boards and actively promotes the formalization of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability policies in all our portfolio companies. We also pay close attention to codes of ethics and conduct at both corporate and investment levels.

Collaborating for sustainable finance

Ardian is an active supporter of sustainability initiatives in the private investment markets and is a leading voice in its industry, calling for greater focus on sustainability issues.

Initiative Climat International

Ardian was a founding member of the Initiative Climat, formerly known as IC20, which commits signatories to measure and mitigate CO2 emissions of their portfolio companies

UN SDGs

We monitor the ESG performance of our investments closely and are extending this to measure their impacts on society using the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

UN PRI

We are as strong supporter of the PRI and have achieved leading scores from this global organization for our sustainability performance

Investor Leadership Network

Ardian have joined the collaborative platform in november 2019. The ILN is an opportunity to find solutions to growing inequalities and environmental risks, together with major international institutions.

The Team

Ardian has a full-time team of five Sustainability specialists based in Paris and working closely with our Sustainability Committee.

Candice Brenet

Head of Sustainability
Pierre Klemas

Senior Manager
April Tissier

Manager
Tamara Krzisch

Analyst
Laura Andremont

Analyst

All News & Insights

Medical assistance at home - Tomorrow’s health-care solution

Sustainability Vision

Sustainable Buyout: a new sustainability measurement methodology that aims to help today’s companies become the companies of the future.

Sustainability Studies

Sustainable Buyout: Ardian reveals its new and exclusive Sustainability Measurement Methodology

Sustainability Responsible finance

Ardian empowers individuals to collectively create sustainable value for all stakeholders

Sustainability Vision

Committed to improving our habits at Ardian, discover Apoorva Joshi's challenge

Sustainability Business

All News & Insights

Our new impact measurement framework shows our commitment to stay at the forefront of the industry’s thinking on sustainability.

Candice Brenet Head of Sustainability

The Ardian Foundation

Ardian’s commitment to social mobility.
The Ardian Foundation, set up in 2010, funds projects that improve educational and employment opportunities for children, young people and entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds.

discover

Publications

Sustainable Buyout

2020

Investing for the economy, society and the planet. Sustainable Buyout is a new Sustainability Measurement Methodology that quantifies the impact of a company and the true reach of its sustainability efforts.

Responsible Investment Policy

2020

At the heart of Ardian's culture lies a commitment to responsibly create enduring value. Our role as a long-term shareholder and investor is to foster growth that is both sustainable and shared accross all stakeholders.

PRI Transparency Report 2020

2020

This report is an export of the individual Signatory organisation’s response to the PRI during the reporting period specified above. It includes their responses to mandatory indicators, as well as responses to voluntary indicators the signatory has agreed to make public.

UN PRI Assessment Report 2020

2020

The Assessment report is designed to provide feedback to signatories to support ongoing learning and development. Read the full report.

Sustainability Report 2018

2019

Ardian empowers individuals to collectively create sustainable value for all stakeholders. Discover our Sustainability Report.

Initiative Carbon 2020

2019

FRENCH PRIVATE EQUITY AND THEINITIATIVE CARBONE 2020
The commitment of French private equity players to measure, manage and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of their portfolio companies.

Our next events

6 Jul

IPEM 2021

The must-attend event for private equity players.

Meet us on our stand on the ground floor of the Palais des Festivals.

Cannes , France
06 July 2021

12 Nov

Responsible Investment Forum 2020 - Private Equity International

PEI - Responsible Investment Forum: Europe 2020

Proving the value of ESG in private equity

The longest running Private Equity forum focused on bringing together fund managers, institutional investors, and expert advisors to discuss ESG issues across alternative asset classes will return virtually in November, co-hosted with PRI...

Paris , France
12 November 2020