Sustainable Markets Initiative Private Equity Group Issues Guidance On ESG Metrics

In May 2023, the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) published a new guide setting out how to use ESG-related metrics effectively in private markets (the ESG Metrics Guide), and how measuring and monitoring these metrics can help drive resilience, growth and value. Launched at The World Economic Forum's 2020 Annual Meeting in Davos, the SMI is a CEO-led global forum through which industries coordinate efforts to achieve sustainability goals. The Private Equity Task Force, which compiled the Guide, was launched a year later to "align on ways the industry can effect change" across the group's three priorities: (i) climate change, (ii) biodiversity and (iii) ESG-related metrics.

The SMI describes the ESG Metrics Guide as neither a framework nor a standard, but a thought process informed by various market participants to address a fundamental question: "How to identify ESG metrics relevant to decision-making that have the ability to influence business strategy,