Commitment to Our Community
We embrace collaboration, integrity, transparency, and passion for results as core pillars of our culture and integral elements of how we do business. These values are rooted in responsible environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) principles that guide our firm as well as the partnerships we pursue. Indeed, we believe that ESG and our values are inextricably linked, and that a commitment to one demands a commitment to both.
ESG
We identify opportunities for ESG value creation within ACP and in the companies in which we invest. A systematic review of ESG issues is built into our due diligence process for new investments, and we actively monitor related initiatives at our portfolio companies. We have a committee to oversee this process that helps ensure consistent application of our policies, and we empower the committee to drive change. In general, we seek to identify and address the key ESG issues in an investment that make a difference in reducing risk or capturing value – often both.
Once we identify areas for action, we work collaboratively with management at our portfolio companies to design and implement change programs. As with any strategic imperative, it is critical that there is full buy-in at a company for any major initiative to succeed.
Our ESG efforts include the following key tenets:
- We are committed to diversity of backgrounds and opinion at ACP and our partner companies. In particular, we track diversity on our boards and act to correct deficiencies.
- We aim to make a positive difference in communities – ours and our portfolio companies’. We accomplish this through investment of our collective and individual efforts, often in conjunction with our portfolio companies. We do this to deepen our connections to our portfolio companies, employees, and communities. The ACP Foundation was established specifically to provide financial support to this effort.
- We care deeply about the environment and issues of sustainability and climate change, and empower and support our companies in their efforts to make progress on these dimensions.
We are proud to be a founding partner of Ownership Works, a nonprofit with a mission to increase prosperity through shared ownership at work. We joined Ownership Works because we are believers in the power of employee ownership to energize the workforce and contribute to a healthy company culture that materially benefits both employees and businesses. As a partner, we are committed to implementing shared ownership more broadly in our portfolio, enhancing employee engagement and building stronger companies. Learn more about the organization here.
We are also proud to be a signatory to the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment, a global network of investors committed to advancing ESG principles to develop a more sustainable global financial system, and to the Institutional Limited Partners Association’s (ILPA) Diversity in Action initiative in furtherance of our continued commitment to advance DEI in our firm, our funds and our portfolio companies. Our efforts in ESG are a perpetual work-in-process; we are regularly refining and enhancing our approach based on our experience.
ACP Foundation
We put our values to work directly through the ACP Foundation. The Foundation partners with charitable organizations that align with our mission to:
- Alleviate poverty
- Promote diversity, inclusion, and youth empowerment
- Strengthen the communities that support our employees and our partner companies (this goal often links to event-driven needs like disaster relief and COVID-19 mitigation in impacted communities where our portfolio companies’ employees live and work).
In 2020 and 2021, we’ve supported our charitable partners with 38 grants, including 30 awarded in partnership with portfolio companies.
