CDC Group digitizes ESG toolkit

A popular ESG guide, tailored to the needs of private fund professionals, can now be used for free online. 

On Tuesday, CDC Group launched an online interactive version of its popular environment, social and governance (ESG) toolkit at the PEI Responsible Investment Forum in London.

The toolkit walks GPs through sector-specific ESG considerations throughout the investment lifecycle.

Since the toolkit was first published in 2006, some 300 industry professionals (spanning 70 firms) have used it, with “thousands of copies being downloaded and distributed,” according to a CDC statement.

At the forum, Mark Eckstein, CDC’s in-house responsible investment specialist, announced that the toolkit underwent a “major upgrade” and is available for the first time as “an interactive online resource” for LPs, GPs and consultants alike. The toolkit is available at toolkit.cdcgroup.com.

CDC is not the first group to offer a more formalized way of ESG reporting, leading to a competing set of reporting standards in market. Most recently, industry software provider eFront rolled out FrontESG, which offers a built-in library of ESG questions and indicators, allowing LPs and GPs to build customized information requests through a shared system.

Much like the competing set of investor reporting standards in market, one CFO recently told pfm the objective of standardized ESG reporting will not be achieved until a single industry-wide standard emerges.