The Story of Henry Kravis of Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co & the Environmental Defense Fund
Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co (KKR) was launched in 1976 and back then their specialization was in highly leveraged transactions. Lately hoping to make their acquisitions have less ecological impact, they have rolled out a novel proposal which has transformed the method by which business concerns and environmental agencies work.
Green business procedures became a hot topic last year when KKR’s Henry Kravis and the non-profit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) merged. Issues like toxic chemical use and unrestrained consumption of water resources rank high on their agenda. Eco-efficiency (a phrase initially popularized by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development WBCSD) is the method applied to achieve these goals, through using techniques like using clean energy, fuel economy and waste reduction. The program was successful, but the management didn’t even understand the entirety of the program’s benefits until Ken Mehlman, the executive responsible for the project, reviewed the project when it had been in operation for its first full year. Ken Mehlman who received a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1991, has served as director of the White House Office of Political Affairs from 2000 through 2005, was appointed to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council in 2007 and currently serves as a member of the Senior Advisory Committee of the Harvard University Institute of Politics, and the executive leadership cabinet of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Foundation, saw that utilizing eco-efficiency was not just helping to preserve the local environment, but it was also saving firms a great deal of money, making the program virtually an immediate success. To date, Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co and Ken Mehlman have succeeded in getting virtually every associated business engaged in the project. Considering that the group has a value of almost one hundred billion USD, you may see what a massive accomplishment this is.
KKR with the EDF in association with Ken Mehlman have also extended the initial program. To illustrate, Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co linked up with the EDF’s Climate Corps Program a venture that instructs students studying for an MBA how to introduce cost efficient, green practices.
In recent months, Ken Mehlman has been cooperating closely with KKR to produce a series of metrics which companies can use to quantify a wide range of resources. This type of info is critical as businesses may easily assess each of their everyday activities and ascertain where they can solve any problems while simultaneously allowing staff to find out how environmentally friendly they are becoming. Today’s business world has been changed forever by the efforts of these people. So, to summarize, the work of these organizations has made ecologically friendly business practice not only viable, but commercially desirable, and their novel ideas are setting a new standard in the business world of today.
