EQT has continued its engagement in achieving the SDGs. Having a sustainable investment mindset and ownership philosophy to future-proof businesses enables EQT to capture opportunities for long-term value creation. The EQT funds have made numerous investments in companies with products or services that contribute to solving societal challenges, such as responsible consumption and production (SDG 12) and sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11). EQT is looking for ways to further accelerate portfolio companies' awareness of, and contribution to, this agenda. EQT has introduced a conceptual framework to assess and visualize Sustainability Performance to trigger people's mindsets and to guide engagement. The framework consists of two dimensions, where the y-axis assesses WHAT the company does, its business model, and how that contributes to solving environmental and social challenges using the SDGs as a lens. The x-axis scores HOW the company does it, based on the expectations set out in the EQT Sustainability Blueprint.

For the first set of these expectations, such as adhering to the UN Global Compact Principles and holding the board accountable to focus on what matters,the EQT funds demand absolute performance. For the other sets of expectations, transparency, ambition and relative performance to the portfolio company's own targets are rewarded. The EQT funds can therefore both support the transformation of a portfolio company with a negative societal impact profile to a neutral or even positive one through full potential plans or, invest in companies with already strong positive profiles and help them scale and develop as organizations.

EQT strives to instill sustainable business solutions and practices in all companies the EQT Funds invest in, from start-ups to already mature companies. The EQT AB Group applies responsible investment and ownership principles and practices as an integral part of each phase of the investment and value creation process. This extends from thematic sourcing to conducting thorough sustainability-focused due diligence to accelerate positive impact as an owner.

EQT is a strong promoter of responsible investment and ownership practices and increased transparency in the private equity and financial industry.

Since December 2010, EQT has been a signatory to the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)  Initiative. EQT has reported according to the PRI framework since 2013/2014 and has achieved the highest score for all the years it has been assessed, for the majority of its modules. All reports are publicly available here.

In addition, EQT is involved in a number of initiatives across the globe to support industry, societies and a broader set of stakeholders, such as Level20, BSR and Door Step School. Read more on Societal Engagement here.

To address the climate change agenda, EQT considers the transition to a low-carbon economy as an integral part of its business model. This means considering climate-related risks when sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities. EQT has also conducted an environmental review of existing EQT funds' portfolio companies together with an external advisor with the aim of increasing awareness, enhancing transparency levels and focusing engagement around core environmental issues. Portfolio companies are also expected to annually report their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water usage and waste to landfill.

For further information on EQT’s own GHG emissions and climate actions, please refer to the EQT Annual and Sustainability Report 2020. Since 2019, all EQT offices operate on electricity from renewable energy sources, partly as a result of EQT acquiring Energy Attribute Certificates (EACs). As a result, the net CO2e emissions from electricity consumption, scope 2, totaled 0 in 2019.

Since 2015, EQT offsets all GHG that cannot be avoided or reduced through supporting different initiatives. In order to create further positive societal impact, EQT has partnered with TRINE, a crowdfunding platform investing in off-grid solar companies with operations in different regions, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa.

EQT is a strong believer that diversity in people has a positive impact for both our investors and society. The firm has a multi-faceted approach to increasing diversity across the organization and fostering an environment that values and respects those differences. These initiatives are aimed at recruiting the best talent from all backgrounds and empowering individuals to succeed.

Among other initiatives, EQT has an employee-driven initiative, EQT WIN (Women’s International Network), which is focused on improving gender diversity at all levels through attracting more women to EQT, increasing retention of female EQTarians and implementing a set of policies to ensure an inclusive and harassment-free workplace.

EQT is not only actively working on multiple initiatives to create better gender diverse teams, but is also putting higher demands on third party suppliers to deliver more diverse team.