Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. or KKR, a global equity powerhouse, has taken another step towards their interest in making their contribution to save Mother Nature by extending its environmental management program up to 20% of the firm’s portfolio. The company was said to be excited about the fact that it has taken such global effort in just a short period of time. Ken Mehlman, the former campaign manager of President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign in the year 2004, is the firm’s managing director since the spring of 2008.
Consisted of highly qualified and experienced members like Ken Mehlman, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. introduced its Green Portfolio Program to four new companies namely Lehigh Phoenix in Armonk, New York, First Data in Atlanta, Georgia, Tarkett in Nanterre, France and Oriental Brewery located in Seoul, Korea. The program was introduced to the aforementioned companies in a bid to reduce their impacts in the environment in terms of paper, waste and chemical use as well as water and energy consumption. The four companies will now start establishing their baselines and monitoring their performance under the Green Portfolio Program. The Green Portfolio Program, which was created in 2008, the same year Ken Mehlman became KKR’s managing director, has been dubbed as Green Returns. It includes the best practices, tools and case studies relevant for the industry of private equity in targeting water, forest products, greenhouse gas emissions and priority chemicals.
Aside from the four companies, KKR has a dozen more companies participating in this money-saving and environmental friendly program including the U.S. Foodservice, Biomet Inc., HCA Inc., Accellent Inc., Sealy Corp., Dollar General Corp., SunGard Data Systems Inc., and Primedia Inc.