From Legitimacy to Leadership: A Comparative Analysis of Environmental, Social, and Governance Reports from the World's Largest Private Equity Firms

Majid Mirza, Farhan Sayeed, Naeem A. Abbasi, Jeff Wilson and Olaf Weber

Canadian Public Policy, 2025, vol. 51, issue S2, 105-114

Abstract: The private equity industry, totaling more than US$14 trillion in assets under management worldwide, is well positioned to make contributions to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We analyzed environmental, social, and governance reports from 33 top private equity firms in 2020, including the largest private equity firm in Canada, Brookfield Asset Management. We looked at which SDGs were most popular (with a focus on SDG 13, Climate Action), geographic and industry trends, modes of SDG integration, and how Brookfield compared with the overall group. The results show that private equity firms may integrate SDGs into their investment processes in nine ways. Brookfield reports a strong commitment to SDG 13 and consistently mentions climate factors at a greater rate than the other firms. Although the reports of some firms include portfolio investments consistent with the SDGs, there is often little evidence that these were chosen with pre-investment intentionality.

Keywords: private equity; sustainable development goals (SDGs); legitimacy theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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