George Roberts

George Roberts, co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), has recently come out in support of private equity investing in green energy. KKR was founded in 1976, and for the past thirty-six years, Roberts has worked alongside fellow co-founder Henry Kravis to make the company a leading private equity corporation.

Aside from Roberts’ direct support for investing in energy, KKR has also indirectly been encouraging the green initiative for the past four years through a program called the “Green Portfolio Program.” The program serves as a way to encourage better, greener, more sustainable businesses.

Of KKR’s 70+ portfolio companies, 23 are members of the Green Portfolio Program. From 2008-2011, Green Portfolio companies reported a total of $365 million in savings. They also reported that over 800,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, 2.2 million tons of waste, and the use of 300 million liters of water were saved.

In a recent interview regarding KKR’s most recent pursuit of energy industry deals, Roberts spoke highly of the possibilities investing in energy presents. He called energy “a huge opportunity,” and said, “We’ve been investing in energy since the mid-eighties… We’ve been interested in that for a long period of time, and now seems like a very good time to be investors in that.”