Vista Equity Partners and its Portfolio Companies Set GHG Reduction Targets
As part of the Vista Climate Pledge, Vista Equity Partners, a leading global investment firm focused exclusively on enterprise software, data, and technology-enabled businesses, announced recently that each of its majority-owned portfolio companies has agreed to measure greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, set a GHG reduction target, and offset GHG emissions on an annual basis.
Vista is one of the first major private equity firms in the United States to commit to a net-zero economy. The latest announcement establishes one of the most comprehensive portfolio-wide procedures and methodologies for tracking emissions in the private equity business, demonstrating Vista's commitment to its portfolio as it works to address climate change.
Robert F. Smith, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Vista, said:
"The size and reach of Vista’s portfolio give us the unique opportunity to contribute to climate goals in a meaningful way, and with the Vista Climate Pledge, we are establishing an industry-standard, utilising the power of technology to create lasting impact. As climate-related issues continue to grow in prevalence and importance for both business leaders and investors, Vista is committed to providing its portfolio companies with resources and support to increase their positive impact and create value for all stakeholders.”
Vista was one of the first private equity firms in North America to join the Net Zero Asset Managers project in July 2021. (NZAM). Vista is committed to reducing Firm emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieving net zero across its portfolio by 2050.
Vista has already started working to accomplish these goals and guarantee that its portfolio is covered by Paris-aligned climate goals. Vista conducted a portfolio-wide GHG emissions measurement plan towards the end of 2021 as the first step in its NZAM pledge.
Vista partnered with all current majority-owned companies – at the time, 55 portfolio companies – to measure the 2019 GHG emissions of our private equity portfolio, including Scopes 1 and 2 emissions as well as significant sources of Scope 3 emissions, establishing a baseline for working toward its net-zero goal.
David Breach, President and Chief Operating Officer at Vista, said:
"At Vista, we regard ESG opportunities as a path for innovation and value creation. Last year, we embarked on a journey to achieve net-zero across our firm and portfolio companies, helping them to future-proof their climate resilience strategies and align our majority-owned investments to net-zero goals."
"The Climate Pledge is the next step in the process to establish a holistic technology-driven process for measuring, reducing, and offsetting emissions, and we look forward to continuing to partner with our portfolio companies to lead the market in our journey towards net-zero.”
Vista assists portfolio companies in their efforts to measure and reduce costs by offering software tools and subject matter expertise to make annual measurements simple and repeatable.
Furthermore, the Firm has Vista Best Practices that align with the Science Based Targets initiative's methodology to assist in setting GHG reduction targets under the Paris Agreement's goals and provide portfolio companies with options to offset their corporate GHG emissions.
Vista has a proven track record on climate change, and this announcement builds on its portfolio firms' commitments to ESG principles, demonstrating the power of the Vista ecosystem in driving genuine change toward climate targets.
Vista released its first ESG and DE&I Report last year, highlighting the company's commitment to ESG and DE&I policies, as well as projects across its worldwide technology ecosystem that serve to make a good impact on investors, companies, and communities.
Source: Businesswire
