Private Markets Model Sustainability Differently
From procurement to governance, it’s the structure — not the slogans — that matters.
They didn’t have a public sustainability score.
No press releases, no annual impact report.
But when I looked at how this midsized European steelware conglomerate managed procurement, contracts, and governance — it was some of the best-integrated sustainability I’d ever seen.
Private markets don’t perform for headlines. They design for resilience.
And while they’re not always perfect, the way they embed sustainability — structurally, not cosmetically — has lessons we should all pay attention to.
Turns out, the most sustainable companies don’t always talk about it. They just do it.
Why Private Markets Think Differently
Private investors — especially in infrastructure, industrials, and PE — don’t answer to the same incentives as public companies.
They don’t have to impress analysts every 90 days. They don’t spend millions polishing sustainability reports. Their reputational incentives are different — and so is their operating rhythm.
What they do care about is long-term value protection. And in practice, that often means thinking about sustainability early: at the due diligence phase, in supplier contracts, in asset handovers, and in governance structure design.
They don’t need a ‘sustainability strategy’ — because it’s baked into how they buy, build, and manage.
It doesn’t always get talked about. But it often gets done.
Sustainability Beyond the Scorecard
Let’s put it bluntly:
Public sustainability is about scores and disclosures.
Private sustainability is about due diligence and control rights.Public sustainability; is reactive, it acts after things have already happened.
Private sustainability is pro-active; it seeks influence before things happen.Public sustainability can often feel like a marketing stunt.
Private sustainability is risk- and value-driven.
In public markets, a company gets graded after the fact. In private markets, investors often shape the asset directly.
Private investors can renegotiate supplier terms, change board structure, or rebuild procurement systems — all in service of long-term performance.
Private investors ask: How will this asset perform in a changing world? And what can we fix now?
A Technical View: How We Evaluate Private Investments
At Wangari, we work with private equity and infrastructure investors to model sustainability from the inside out. Not as a score — but as a structural map of risk and potential.
Here’s a simplified breakdown of what we look at:
Risk flags, e.g., exposure to fossil-intensive procurement, labor risks, or fragility in supplier networks or logistics under climate stress.
Positive levers, e.g., circular economy design potential, local employment creation and community benefit structures, and embedded resilience.
Governance metrics, e.g., decision-making structure, board composition and independence, and audit trail quality and transparency.
In many cases, these indicators can be embedded before acquisition — through contract clauses, board structuring, and incentive alignment.
What Public Markets Can Learn
There are plenty of public companies with good intentions. But structurally, they’re often boxed in — by quarterly targets, fragmented ownership, and the pressure to look good more than to be good.
What if public markets borrowed from the private playbook?
Real stakeholder interviews instead of tick-box materiality matrices
Supply chain stress tests rather than self-declared scope 3 disclosures
Incentive structures that link performance to actual outcomes, not report metrics
You can’t score your way to sustainability. You have to design for it.
The Bottom Line: Stop Looking for the Logo — Look for the Levers
It’s tempting to rely on public signals — the flashy ESG report, the SBTi commitment, the SDG wheel on the homepage.
But those don’t tell you how a company makes decisions.
Private markets aren’t perfect. But they’re often ahead when it comes to embedding sustainability at the operational level.
If you want to understand a company’s sustainability, don’t ask for its ESG report. Ask how it makes decisions.
Wangari’s Curated Reads
- has a compelling piece on the Tata Power Waste Management Workshop for us. His inside look at a Tata Power waste management workshop offers a refreshingly rare but real sustainability conversation grounded in the realities of day-to-day operations. Rather than vague goals or glossy presentations, the team asked tough, practical questions about waste traceability, sorting, and system accountability.
- has a beautifully personal take for us with Aging, Unfiltered. In this candid, liberating piece, Alexandra Nash shares how turning 40 sparked a powerful shift—from people-pleasing and burnout to clarity, confidence, and self-prioritization. With wit and warmth, she reframes aging not as decline but as return: to your own voice, values, and vitality. A reminder that sustainability begins within—when we stop rushing, start listening, and make room for a life that actually feels like ours.
- has a welcome reminder for us: Sustainability, Not a Sprint. In fact, it’s a decades-long journey that looks different across sectors, but shares a common thread: long-term commitment rooted in values. From Brompton Bicycles’ quiet revolution in urban mobility to footballers, hotels, and students leading grassroots change, each story shows how regeneration emerges through persistence, creativity, and systems thinking.
Thanks a million for reading my words. The fact that they resonated and you so generously shared them makes my heart sing!