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The History of Henry Kravis of Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co & the Environmental Defense Fund
- December 8th, 2009
In the beginning, when Henry Kravis and his business partner George Roberts launched Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co (KKR) in the 1970’s with the assistance of the First Chicago Corporation, the company’s focus was in highly leveraged transactions. Recently, however, in the hope of making their acquisitions greener and more profitable as well, KKR have launched an innovative green proposal which has dramatically transformed the way businesses and environmental activists work together, forever. Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co’s Henry Kravis and the New York based Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) joined forces last year, intending to make environmentally sound business practice an accepted idea. Their goals include encouraging their affiliated companies to fight against operations which may harm the environment like air pollution not to forget any absurd water consumption. In order to implement this, they utilize eco-efficiency; this makes use of concepts like reducing the intensity of materials, improving fuel economy through vehicle fleet maintenance, and recycling programs. Even though the program was a huge success, managment simply didn’t realize how fantastic the consequences were until Ken Mehlman, the person responsible for the Green Portfolio Project, examined the figures for the first year.
Eclipsing all expectations, Ken realized that practicing eco-efficiency not only enhanced environmental awareness, but was increasing the the profit from all their business organizations too. Virtually all of the firms affiliated to Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co and Ken Mehlman nowadays actively participate in the Green Portfolio Project. Seeing that this portfolio of companies is worth almost one hundred billion USD, you can see what an enormous feat this is. The Green Portfolio project has developed far beyond its original remit and currently includes new opportunities. The Climate Corps Program founded by the Environmental Defense Fund is just one of these, it campaigns for earth friendly principles to MBA interns.
KKR and Ken Mehlman have taken the time to create products which manage various resources. Tools like these permit management to evaluate their progress and identify any problem areas.
Henry Kravis, the KKR, and the Environmental Defense Fund are true visionaries in the business community. These visionary developments have simplified the procedure for companies in every industry and demonstrated to the world that making profits need not entail the hefty price of negatively impacting our planet.
