In brief: How Abris is progressing its ambitious climate ‘manifesto’

New Private Markets caught up with Central Eastern European private equity firm Abris Capital Partners, which last year pledged to achieve a carbon neutral portfolio by 2025. As the deadline approaches, Monika Nachyla, partner responsible for ESG and investor relations at Abris, gave an overview of the firm’s progress so far:

• Next year will be all about reaching reduction goals. The firm has already measured the carbon footprint of all companies in its portfolio using a proprietary carbon footprint tool for scopes 1, 2 and soon 3, and every Abris portfolio company has its own reduction KPIs. Each year, the firm plans to invest in further emission-reduction projects to ensure the focus is on real reductions rather than offsets.
• Offset solutions will be used for the remaining part of the carbon footprint which cannot be reduced, but Nachyla notes that the majority of the firm’s portfolio can reach high level neutrality through true reduction.
• The biggest challenge for Abris so far has been convincing business partners in the region to see the implementation of emission reduction targets as a must-have with long-term benefits to the value of their business.
• Abris says it has seen first-hand how emission reduction initiatives can be a significant accelerator of value.
• The Arbis Warsaw office became 100 percent carbon neutral in its operations this year.
• The firm published its climate “manifesto” last year.