WaveStone Capital

Climate Impact & Sustainability Data (2023, 2024)

Increased portfolio carbon footprint coverage from 35% in 2022 to over 75% in 2023.
8 portfolio companies estimated their bottom-up Scope 1 and 2 emissions for the first time.
Real Estate Equity completed Paris-aligned decarbonization assessments and carbon footprints for ~90% of invested AUM.
Eliminated plastic disposables in firm offices while enhancing our waste recycling and composting programs.
For new Ares corporate office leases, we prioritized LEED/BREEAM certified buildings while installing energy efficient systems including LED lighting and selecting sustainable materials wherever possible. In 2023, 28% of all new leases were in certified buildings.

Our firmwide mentorship program engaged ~300 employees; an additional 165 employees participated in the Beyond Barriers and McKinsey Connected Leaders Academy professional development programs.
More than 58% of Ares team members volunteered at least once – a 91% increase from 2022 – and collectively donated over 6,800 hours of volunteer service at 47 locations across the world.
Ares employees completed ~1,480 self-paced e-learning courses in 2023.
Ares’ Direct Lending team launched a formal engagement program with selected borrowers, aiming to share industry-leading ESG practices and support efforts by these borrowers to enhance their own ESG practices.
Achieved a 100 score on Human Rights Campaign’s 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index

We more than doubled the number of investigated cyber-related events to 19,542 (154% year-over-year increase) while reducing the average time it takes to investigate, contain, and/or close such events.
Ares assisted with the publication of the UNPRI Private Debt Advisory Committee’s paper on ESG incorporation in Direct Lending.
The Legal and Compliance departments were combined at the end of 2023 to create a more cohesive and collaborative team.

Long-term Goals:

Medium-term Goals:

Expand the Ares Climate Transition Program through the development of new tools, partnerships, and initiatives.
Improve emissions measurement to reduce our reliance on estimated data and identify material decarbonization opportunities.

Short-term Goals:

An ever-evolving and increasingly complex set of stakeholder priorities around sustainability.
A dramatically different discourse around ESG integration in the alternatives industry relative to the prior few years.
Maintaining scale and actionability of ESG data collection and analysis.
Ensuring the time and effort spent on ESG data collection is not simply for disclosure’s sake, but to inform investment value and risk mitigation.

Refreshed materiality analysis to reaffirm commitment to stakeholder priorities.
Focus on ESG factors that most affect Ares’ financial performance and investment outcomes.
Direct engagement with portfolio companies and assets to support their sustainability efforts.
Development of the Ares Climate Transition Program (ACT Program).
Increased ESG data collection and reporting program.
Development of ESG-linked financing engagements.

Frameworks Used: TCFD, EDCI, SASB, GRI, UNPRI

Policies and procedures for effective assessment and monitoring of supply chains

Frameworks Used: Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), Taskforce for Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFDs)