ESG performance and risk management software, data and consulting services provider Sphera announced today that its announced its carbon accounting solutions will be integrated by alternative investment manager Blackstone, contributing to Blackstone’s initiative to reduce emissions across its portfolio.
The announcement follows the acquisition by Blackstone of Sphera last year from Genstar Capital, in a deal valuing the company at $1.4 billion. Sphera works with organizations around the world to help them surface, manage, and mitigate ESG risk in the areas of Environment, Health, Safety & Sustainability, Operational Risk Management and Product Stewardship.
Paul Marushka, Sphera CEO and President, said:
“Blackstone has demonstrated a commitment to being a leader in ESG integration, engagement and reporting within the private equity industry. We’re honored that the firm has brought us on as a partner to support its carbon footprinting initiatives and look forward to working with a number of its portfolio companies to establish robust monitoring and reporting frameworks for GHG emissions.”
Blackstone introduced its portfolio Emissions Reduction Program in September, with a commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 15% across all new investments where the firm controls energy usage. The investment manager has announced a series of investments over the past several months aimed at capitalizing on opportunities emerging from global initiatives to decarbonize, and Blackstone recently stated that it sees an opportunity to invest an estimated $100 billion in energy transition and climate change solutions projects over the next decade.
James Mandel, Chief Sustainability Officer at Blackstone, said:
“We are in a unique position at Blackstone to support the sustainability efforts of companies across sectors and geographies given our large, global portfolio—and sophisticated measurement tools are at the core of impactful decarbonization efforts. We believe Sphera’s deep technical rigor on GHG inventories will be tremendously valuable in our ESG risk mitigation efforts, and are thrilled to integrate its software suite, consulting services and data into the platform of resources available to our portfolio companies.”
