Vitruvian Partners is committed to responsible and sustainable investment principles – it is good business practice and good citizenship. Environmental, social and corporate governance (“ESG”) issues and stewardship considerations frame our investment approach and our firm.
A well-designed and well-implemented ESG approach is of positive societal and economic value to any business, through the enhancement of revenues and reputation and the reduction of risks and costs.
Our investment strategy focuses on asset light, low carbon businesses. We work in partnership with our portfolio companies to reduce emissions wherever possible and to implement ESG objectives and KPIs that are relevant to their business. We actively support regulatory improvements and the opportunities they provide for innovation. We have a dedicated sustainability thematic investment team.
Vitruvian has been a signatory of the UN supported Principles of Responsible Investment (“PRI”) since 2017.
unpri.org
Vitruvian is proud to partner with Climate Partner for emissions measurement, offset and renewable energy certificate purchases.
climatepartner.com/en
Our portfolio companies are typically established, profitable businesses with experienced senior managers; they are predominantly headquartered in Europe, the US, and other developed countries.
We seek to implement environmental best practice, having been
operationally carbon neutral as a firm
since 2019 and carbon negative
from 2022.
This includes measuring and offsetting the firm’s material scope 3 emissions including flights, data centre energy use, employee commuting and WFH.
Climate change is being considered at the Firm and portfolio company level from the perspective of risk and opportunity identification and management.
We assess our portfolio against climate risk scenarios within the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate Risk Disclosure (TCFD).
Vitruvian is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority. Vitruvian is a signatory to the
United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment.
In our ESG practice we reference international standards such as SASB and the UNGC, amongst others.
Stewardship is integral to our business model. Our presence on company boards ensures a high quality of governance.
Where Vitruvian has majority ownership and influence we appoint an ESG champion to deliver on agreed ESG objectives and KPIs. This approach is bespoke to each portfolio company and has delivered successful ESG outcomes.
We have never invested nor intend to invest in any company where we believe there to be heightened risks relating to human rights: modern slavery, forced labour, human trafficking, and/or child labour.
Diversity and inclusion, codes of conduct and employee well-being are important to us as they are to our portfolio companies.
Vitruvian hosts an annual ESG Forum for its portfolio companies and interested LPs. In 2022 the theme of our fourth ESG Forum was
“ESG opportunities arising from the transition economy”.
Our team engages with policy makers, activists and wider communities to better understand and support the
ESG trends driving businesses.
Vitruvian’s supported offset for 2022 is the Rimba Raya forest protection project in Indonesia. This UN supported Gold Standard project delivers extensive social and economic benefits to the local community as well as conserving an important wildlife habitat.
A summary of Vitruvian’s ESG policy is available here:
To learn more about Vitruvian’s ESG efforts please see the public version of our 2022 ESG Report here:
Responsible Investment: Vitruvian ESG Report