The Fisch Files with Michael Fisch featuring Kevin Smith

In this “Fisch Files” segment, Michael Fisch speaks with Kevin Smith, who leads the firm's ESG initiatives, drawn by the opportunity to drive impact within private equity and by the firm's strong, hardworking, partnership-oriented culture.

Smith identifies an “educational gap” as a key challenge in helping portfolio companies understand and track both established ESG factors (e.g., employee health and safety) and newer ones (e.g., water usage) alongside opportunities to improve disclosure and use of ESG data to benefit companies’ financial performance. He also explains why American Securities joined the ESG Data Convergence Initiative and the Principles for Responsible Investment, describing them as tools to benchmark portfolio companies against other private equity firms and portfolio companies, and to provide investors with a standardized disclosure framework, while noting that materiality varies by industry.

Smith highlights an exciting new initiative applying technology to track ESG-related supply chain risks, seeing it as both a potential new revenue source and an example of the long-term value ESG work can create.