Key Takeaways from the Responsible Investment Forum: New York

Quinn+Partners (Q+P) attended the Responsible Investment Forum (the Forum) in New York City last week, which unites global private markets investors to turn sustainability ambition into portfolio action by sharing best practices and challenges. The event highlighted five overarching insights:

1. Demonstrating Sustainability Value Creation

Creating business value has long been a premise of sustainability integration and is receiving increased attention as companies recalibrate their approach. A PRI study of private market investors released during the Forum highlights that, while many are incorporating sustainability into investment management processes, relatively few are quantifying how it creates value.

Recent case studies from Canadian Pension Manager BCI and private equity leader KKR highlight that sustainability value creation requires integration into a company’s strategy and business model. This perspective, echoed by many Forum participants, needs to be complemented by achieving quick wins to build buy-in and finance subsequent initiatives. Companies can then use early momentum to pursue longer-term, higher-impact projects.

Tracking financial metrics, such as operating expenses (OpEx) savings and return on investment (ROI), is critical. Participants also emphasized the importance of identifying other financial value drivers, including improved access to capital, winning customer mandates, more efficient regulatory or permitting processes and insurance savings.

Frameworks are emerging to guide efforts, including investor tools from NYU Stern and PRI. In our recent Five-Minute Brief on Translating Sustainability into Financial Value, we share Q+P’s  recommendations for connecting strategies to financial value based on our experience.

2. AI Risks + Opportunities

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used by many investors to expedite and enhance sustainability integration — from due diligence to scenario analysis. While AI-related energy and water use represents a significant environmental impact, many investors see strong potential to leverage AI for efficiency and optimization, positioning it as an opportunity.

AI also introduces risks that investors need to assess. Participants noted that expectations are evolving, with investors moving beyond basic diligence — such as the existence of policies — toward more rigorous assessments of how AI is actually embedded and governed within organizations.. Practices include clarifying accountability for AI strategy and decision-making, ensuring transparency with stakeholders and establishing assurance processes and controls to evaluate AI systems for accuracy, bias and effectiveness.

Participants also emphasized the importance of managing systemic AI-related risks collaboratively, including environmental impacts on energy and water use, workforce transition, inequality and misinformation.

3. Focusing on Climate Adaptation

Forum participants noted a clear shift toward climate adaptation, recognizing that physical climate impacts are affecting assets, operations and supply chains. GPs noted they can accelerate action by signalling adaptation as an explicit expectation for management teams and, where appropriate, supporting the underlying assessment work. One infrastructure investor described procuring climate data on behalf of portfolio companies and asking management teams to identify their most material risks, leveraging their knowledge of the business while grounding the discussion in evidence.

Speakers also emphasized that adaptation should be embedded in due diligence, so risks are understood early and reflected in business plans and underwriting assumptions. Critically, this data should not remain siloed; sharing results with management teams enables prioritization and practical mitigation planning. One pragmatic suggestion was to track weather‑related downtime (and avoided downtime) at assets as a tangible way to quantify the value of resilience investments.

4. Standardized, Decision-useful Data

Participants highlighted that sustainability data is gradually becoming more standardized, accessible and comparable — shifting from bespoke questionnaires toward consistent datasets and processes. Initiatives such as the ESG Data Convergence Initiative (EDCI) are demonstrating how improved data quality and consistency can help link reporting to outcomes.

The bar has also risen: LPs increasingly expect data and case studies that show improvements over time and how these contribute to business value. In other words, the focus is shifting from management practices to measurable performance.

Several participants noted that more robust data can also support exit narratives by demonstrating how assets integrate seamlessly into prospective investors’ sustainability programs.

5. Stewardship + Education Remain Critical to Execution

Multiple speakers underscored that stewardship is often the differentiator between strong sustainability intentions and measurable results. Leading firms described deploying structured engagement — including training sessions, incentive mechanisms and cross‑portfolio working groups among management teams — to build shared capability, accountability and peer learning. A strong example is CD&R’s Climate Leadership Program.

Participants also noted that some terminology, such as climate or physical risk, can feel unfamiliar or carry unintended connotations in certain management contexts. Framing these topics through a business lens — including uptime, cost, revenue, customer requirements and risk reduction — helps management teams identify practical opportunities and feel empowered to act. When executed effectively, stewardship programs can build momentum through collaboration, healthy internal momentum and clearer ownership of initiatives.

At Quinn+Partners, we advise businesses and investors to use sustainability to drive value, manage risk and excel in a changing world. If you are ready to take the next step to evolve your sustainability program, please get in touch.