Coller Capital’s 2025 ESG Report

Portfolio GP reporting: A decade of data

The bedrock of our portfolio General Partner-level ESG reporting across all funds is our annual GP ESG survey, an initiative first introduced in 2016. Every year, we gather data from GPs in our private equity and private credit portfolios to evaluate how ESG practices are being adopted and implemented.

This is our 10th ESG Report and we have access to a decade of findings from surveys.

We want to highlight the evolution of ESG across our funds over the past ten years, and selected trends and observations are provided below.

By 2025, approximately 97% of our surveyed GPs have a formal ESG policy integrated into their investment processes. This marks a significant improvement from 87% in 2016 and reflects growing recognition of the importance of ESG adoption.

Notably, the figures have consistently remained above 87% over the years, even as the number of respondents has increased. Perhaps, influenced by this we observed the number of PRI signatories increased over the same period from 40% in 2016 to 71% in 2025.

In the last seven years, no GPs in our survey reported plans to reduce their ESG resources, which is encouraging. While there is a slight dip in progressive outlook from 2024 to 2025, we believe that reflects a maturity within the industry and is reflective of the substantial progress already achieved – resulting in a more stable view on in-house ESG development.

A growing emphasis on thematic ESG risk factors perhaps indicate a growing level of awareness and sophistication in how GPs think about the integration of a diverse suite of ESG risk factors into investment management processes.

Animal welfare as a risk factor for consideration has, for example, become more mainstream over the period as awareness has grown and adoption across applicable sectors increased.

Some issues show a near constant level of adoption/perspective among GPs and perhaps also reflect a growing appreciation of the complexity of adopting frameworks and approaches that can deliver upon commitments.

Interesting examples of this being climate related net zero and gender diversity.

Net zero:
The near 50-50 split suggests some uncertainty among GPs regarding portfolio company net zero targets—potentially reflecting limited information or control.

Most GPs responded on behalf of both themselves and their portfolio companies, with only one or two responding for just one or the other. Across the years, we observe fluctuations in net zero alignment between GPs and their portfolio companies. Roughly 30% of respondents consistently report differing outlooks between the two.

Among those with aligned net zero timeframes, ~50% agree that they cannot foresee a realistic target date. This group outweighs those with a mutually agreed goal, suggesting that while alignment appears common, only about one-third of respondents share a clear, defined target.

Therefore, while using GP net zero progress as a proxy for their portfolio companies may be a reasonable approach, a manual review is recommended to ensure its appropriateness in each case.

While the overall distribution has remained relatively consistent across the ten-year survey period, it is encouraging to see that around 60-70% of GPs have consistently reported having at least some female investment partners. The decline in the proportion of GPs with no female partners suggests a gradual increase in an aspect of gender diversity within investment teams.