This philosophy shapes both our investment decisions and the way we support our portfolio. Rather than treating sustainability as a standalone initiative, we seek to integrate it into core business strategy – aligning capital allocation, operational priorities, and long-term value creation.
This approach was reflected in discussions at the 2025 Private Equity Sustainability Practicum at NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, which convened general partners (GPs), limited partners (LPs), and portfolio company leaders. This is a key area of focus for the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, which has published research and open-source tools analyzing how sustainability-related factors can influence long-term value creation.
Executives from three KKR portfolio companies shared how this integration is taking shape across sectors:
- Linda Wrong, Global Head of Sustainability at ContourGlobal, a global independent power producer, described why decarbonization has become a core business priority.
- John Garnett, SVP, Technical Sustainability & Innovation at Charter Next Generation, a material science leader, outlined how circularity is reshaping competitiveness in packaging.
- Tom Hodge, Chief Human Resources Officer at Potter Global Technologies, a fire- and life-safety solutions company, emphasized that investing in employees and driving strong business results are mutually reinforcing.
Here are a few takeaways from the discussion:
ContourGlobal: Advancing Decarbonization as a Lever for Value Creation
As global power markets evolve, ContourGlobal is advancing a strategy that underscores the importance of decarbonization to operational performance and reliability. “The benefits of decarbonization go well beyond emissions reduction – they help businesses, economies, and societies become more resilient and competitive over time,” Wrong said.
Reducing dependence on fossil fuels has many potential benefits for power producers beyond reducing carbon emissions. It can reduce the risk of fuel price volatility and open access to sustainable finance. In fact, ContourGlobal issued its first-ever Green Bond in 2025, raising more than $1 billion to support its transition toward renewable energy. The bond was 4.5 times oversubscribed, which ContourGlobal believes reflects strong investor interest and confidence in the company’s long-term strategy to build a lower-carbon, more resilient energy portfolio.
In addition, Wrong noted “the demand for clean power among utilities, corporations, and data centers is growing, giving decarbonized power producers an advantage in the market.” Though regulatory requirements and carbon taxes vary by jurisdiction, there are also clear regulatory incentives for decarbonization in some markets.
ContourGlobal’s management team sees decarbonization as a core business strategy, linking it directly to financial performance, risk reduction, and long-term growth. Strong governance and global coordination are essential to ensure that efforts undertaken to meet decarbonization goals also put the business in a stronger long-term financial position. Projects are evaluated based on returns, cost savings, compliance, and portfolio resilience, with initiatives challenged if they aren’t expected to improve value or reduce risk. By embedding decarbonization into strategy, capital allocation, and senior management oversight, the company ensures decarbonization efforts remain closely linked to measurable value creation.
As an example, Wrong pointed to the company’s proposed heavy-fuel-to-gas conversion at Cap des Biches in Senegal. The project is expected to reduce CO₂ intensity at this site by roughly 30% – equivalent to removing 28,000 passenger vehicles from the road each year. However, it should also result in increased energy production, as natural gas offers more efficient power generation. For the government and state-owned customer that purchases power from the site, it should also result in lower energy costs and was key to achieving a five-year power producer agreement (PPA) extension.
Charter Next Generation: Using Circularity to Strengthen Resource Efficiency and Market Advantage
Charter Next Generation (CNG) is demonstrating how circularity – the design of products, systems, and even business models that prioritize reuse and waste reduction – can help a company drive stronger performance and improve its competitive position.
Demand for recycled content and recycle-ready products and solutions is growing.1 As a result, consumer brands are seeking higher performance films that also fulfill their sustainable packaging goals, and CNG’s certified, sustainable film portfolio is already helping customers achieve those objectives. Additionally, regulatory tailwinds from extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation, which seeks to shift the burden of packaging waste from the municipalities and governments to the companies whose products create it in the first place, are becoming more widespread, providing critical support for capital investments in recycle-ready materials. “EPR is changing the market,” Garnett explains. “When packaging is designed to be recycled, producers can reduce fees and strengthen their competitive position.”
The company designs sustainable films and advanced materials that span four product segments: recycle-ready, recycled content, compostable, and reduced carbon solutions. These innovations, coupled with a focus on reducing waste across its operations, represent a shift that Garnett notes, “improves efficiency, lowers exposure to volatile markets, and enhances product marketability.”
CNG believes the financial impact is clear. In 2024, the company reused more than 100 million pounds of internal scrap by reintegrating it back into production, lowering input costs and minimizing waste. Building on this success, CNG is expanding its zero-waste-to-landfill initiative and embedding scrap reduction, materials reuse, and process waste optimization into its manufacturing efficiency practices.
Looking ahead, CNG expects 2026 to be a pivotal year as EPR requirements are increasing across several markets. By helping customers reduce fees, lower material usage, and meet their sustainability objectives, CNG believes it is strengthening customer relationships and supporting improved market positioning – reinforcing its competitive advantage.
Potter Global Technologies: Building a Culture of Ownership to Enhance Performance
At a time when many companies are re-evaluating how their workforce strategies can unlock operational performance, Potter is showing what can happen when employee engagement becomes a key driver of value. Founded more than 125 years ago, the St. Louis–based company entered a new chapter following its 2023 acquisition by KKR. Employee engagement had always mattered to Potter, but Hodge believes that broad-based ownership has redefined it. With support from KKR’s Human Capital Center of Excellence, Potter launched its Ownership Program in early 2024, where all employees became owners in the business.
Early results have shown meaningful impact. At the St. Louis factory, turnover costs have fallen by approximately two thirds and safety incidents have been reduced by more than half compared to 2023, while across the organization engagement scores are up and voluntary attrition has dropped from 46% to below 9%. Financial well-being programs – including emergency savings accounts, personalized financial coaching, and hardship grants – are helping employees build financial stability and resilience, enabling them to better participate in and benefit from the long-term wealth-building opportunities that employee ownership offers.
“Investing in employees and driving strong business results are not competing priorities,” Hodge said. “Treating employees like owners improves engagement, safety, retention, and productivity – and those outcomes have a clear and measurable impact on performance and value creation.”
Hodge emphasized that the opportunity now is to deepen a culture of ownership through transparency, regular communication, and continued commitment to employee well-being. “Building an ownership-driven culture takes sustained leadership and consistency,” he said. “We’re excited for the journey ahead.”
Conclusion
Across sectors, leaders highlighted a significant opportunity to use sustainability levers to both create and protect value. By prioritizing the sustainability issues most closely tied to material risks and opportunities, and by improving how performance is tracked and connected to core business objectives, companies are strengthening resilience and supporting long-term value creation.
