Ambienta

Summary

Ambienta, one of Europe’s largest asset managers focussing specifically on sustainability-related investments, uses KEY ESG to collect high-quality, granular ESG data across 23 global portfolio companies, reducing reporting time by 65%. The platform reflects each company’s operational reality, enabling entity-level insights that directly inform value-creation strategies. By empowering over 300 users to build in-house ESG capability, KEY ESG strengthens portfolio engagement and drives measurable sustainability impact.

The Challenge: Complex, high-quality ESG data needs across a diverse portfolio with limited sustainability resources

As world-leaders in sustainability performance, Ambienta needs to collect and analyse high-quality ESG data across its portfolio of 23 global companies. Their ambition to be sustainability leaders requires accurate, granular data that reveals insights about sustainability activities at the single-entity level. Ambienta also wanted to foster stronger relationships with portfolio companies by making ESG reporting a value-adding process, not just a compliance exercise. They needed a solution that would encourage in-house knowledge building, support a robust audit process, and provide insight that portfolio companies could use internally for their own strategic and operational decisions. Up until this point, they had relied primarily on spreadsheets which had resulted in inefficiencies and inaccuracies and created bottlenecks for Ambienta’s in-house ESG team. They were looking for a solution which enabled them to collect accurate, comparable, and auditable data from 23 portfolio companies and over 300 users at the single-entity level.

KEY ESG’s user-friendly platform delivers a 65% faster reporting process

To meet these goals, Ambienta adopted the KEY ESG platform, deploying it both at the fund level and within each portfolio company. Each of the portfolio companies gains access to their own platform and benefits from the exposure to expert ESG workshops, 24/7 AI-powered support and thought-leadership webinars which KEY ESG provides. Francesco Anichini, Ambienta’s ESG Associate explained: “KEY ESG makes it very easy for the portfolio companies to understand where and how to input the data in a consistent and standardised way. The platform has made accurate ESG data collection possible where it wasn’t before. The data collection, review and audit process used to take three full-time ESG specialists – this year it was manageable for one.”

KEY ESG reflects the operational reality of each portfolio company to drive actionable insights

Each portfolio company has autonomy over their ESG processes and can setup the platform so it reflects the exact operational reality of their business structure. For complex businesses such as Wateralia which is headquartered in Italy but with multiple facilities and commercial offices worldwide, KEY ESG’s tagging system allowed them to recreate the real physical structure of the company, distinguishing between offices, warehouses and water sites.

Francesco Anichini, Ambienta’s ESG Manager commented: “Having granular data at the entity-level has been fundamental in guiding sustainability initiatives and value-creation actions where they are truly relevant and impactful for the business.”

KEY ESG empowers portfolio companies to build in-house expertise and gain buy-in for sustainability initiatives

KEY ESG has helped Ambienta generate a high level of engagement from portfolio companies, transforming ESG reporting into a collaborative process. By giving portfolio teams access to an easy-to-use platform and clear reporting process, Ambienta has improved relationships with its investments and fostered a culture of sustainability that goes beyond simple compliance.

Francesco explains their approach:

“KEY ESG’s platform allows us to embed ESG knowledge directly within our portfolio companies, without having to hire sustainability experts at the portfolio company level. Instead of relying on external consultants or opaque calculations, existing teams understand their data and can trace every figure back to source. That transparency and understanding is vital – without it you cannot build credible and scalable sustainability action plans and it is hard to create ownership at the portfolio company level for ESG outcomes if teams do not understand what is being measured.”

Across Ambienta’s portfolio, over 300 users with differing access level permissions frequently login to the platform to log changes and refine data points. The previous reliance on spreadsheets is now replaced by a live-time single source of truth platform which drives best-in-class data quality and reduces the time Ambienta spends on reporting by 65%.

Conclusion: Ambienta strengthens relationships with portfolio companies and builds a best-in-class data collection process to drive measurable sustainability impact with KEY ESG

Ambienta’s partnership with KEY ESG showcases how a forward-thinking private equity firm can leverage a sustainability platform to enhance relationships, collect high-quality ESG data, and maintain global leadership in sustainable investing. Ambienta and KEY ESG’s partnership creates a blueprint for how sustainability strategy can be embedded across a portfolio to drive measurable value-creation initiatives.

Francesco concluded:

“KEY ESG has enabled us to deepen engagement with our portfolio companies and capture the high-quality data essential to Ambienta’s mission of delivering world-leading sustainability performance.”

About Ambienta and their “ESG in Action” programme

Ambienta is a European investment manager, founded in 2007, pioneering sustainable investing in environmental champions across private equity, public markets, and private credit. With offices in Milan, London, Paris, and Munich, Ambienta manages over €4bn in assets and is backed by a global and growing investor base. The firm invests in companies driven by environmental megatrends and whose products or services improve Resource Efficiency or Pollution Control. Its science-driven approach identifies environmental champions of the real economy – businesses that deliver strong financial returns while generating measurable positive environmental impact.

An industry pioneer, Ambienta was one of the first UN PRI signatories in 2012 and attained B-Corp status in 2019. In 2020, Ambienta became IIGCC member and in 2023 committed to the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

Sustainability is not a theme for Ambienta — it is the foundation of its investment strategy. This conviction is enabled by the firm’s dedicated team of engineers, scientists and ESG specialists, and by its proprietary ESG in Action programme, Ambienta’s signature approach to embedding ESG into value creation.

Ambienta’s ESG in Action programme is a practical, impact-oriented framework that makes ESG a driver of operational excellence and financial performance. It is built on four pillars:

• Co-developed with management during onboarding, ensuring alignment from day one.
• Grounded in a rigorous materiality assessment, identifying the ESG factors most relevant to value and risk.
• Translated into a value-linked ESG Action Plan, with clear initiatives, KPIs and implementation timelines.
• Delivered through close collaboration between the Investment team and Ambienta’s ESG and Sustainability & Strategy experts.

This pragmatic, impact-oriented process ensures that ESG isn’t theoretical – it drives real operational and financial value across the portfolio.