London, 31th of October 2023

The Private Equity European ESG Summit took place again in October 2023, bringing together a network of leading private equity firms to celebrate their ESG efforts and achievements. This year, Asper Investment Management, its portfolio companies, and its funds received in total five ESG excellence awards, recognizing our commitments to climate mitigation, sustainable infrastructure, diversity and inclusion, and our comprehensive and robust ESG governance. The ESG AAA Awards were assessing performance of environmental, social and governance excellence criteria across a wide range of categories over the financial year 2022. In this round, over 100 asset managers participated in the ESG Private Equity Wire Summit. Amongst the ESG industry-leading peers, Asper stood out by receiving two awards for its portfolio investments, two for its funds, and one for its internal firm management. 

Asper team members Calum Drummond, Alanna Thompson and Charles Serilas at the Private Equity European ESG Summit

Asper Dorothea: Best ESG Fund and Best Social Initiative
The Asper Dorothea partnership, which supports Dutch sustainable district heating platform Energie voor Elkaar (“EVE”) was recognized as the Best ESG Fund for its sustainable investment focus on climate change mitigation through the construction and operation of sustainable heating networks. EVE’s sustainable and local heat networks serve more than 20,000 households with sustainable heat from sustainable heat sources, including biomass, waste heat, and geothermal energy. EVE was also honored with the ‘Best Social Initiative’ award, recognizing its exceptional stakeholder and community engagement program. EVE’s commitment to integrating the local community’s voice into its operations through its Heat Council, and to fostering their active participation in the energy transition, has been recognized by Private Equity Wire as a leading example of social inclusion.

Asper Columba: Best ESG fund – Infrastructure and Most Innovative ESG Initiative
Asper Columba is a partnership dedicated to investments in onshore wind energy projects in Ireland, through Invis Energy, Ireland’s leading independent onshore wind development platform, which has been working with the Asper team for over ten years. This year, Columba was recognized as an AA winner for its dedicated focus on ESG considerations in the development of its infrastructure management. Additionally, Invis Energy received the ‘Most Innovative ESG Initiative’ award for its participation in the Nature+Energy research project. This collaborative effort aims not only to generate renewable energy through wind farms but also to bolster the resilience of surrounding ecosystems against climate change. By enhancing pollination, water filtration, and habitat provision capabilities, the initiative seeks to maximize the positive impact on the local biodiversity.

Asper Investment Management: Best Diversity Initiative
At Asper firm level, we are very focused on fostering diversity and inclusion into our internal operations and decision-making, as well as into our portfolio companies. During 2022, we upgraded various processes to translate this commitment into practice. These efforts included enhancing our recruitment procedures, monitoring additional key performance indicators, and forming partnerships with external NGOs and initiatives. These endeavors culminated in Asper winning the ‘Best Diversity Initiative’ award.

Asper is incredibly proud of its achievements and welcomes this recognition as a sign that our mission and methods to building the new sustainable infrastructure are validated by external frameworks and benchmarks.

Access here the full list of winners

Please get in touch at investorrelations@asper-im.com