The Evolution of Sustainable Credit & Platforms at Apollo (Volume III): Broadening the Scope of Sustainability

Building on Apollo’s longstanding commitment to transparency, this white paper provides an in-depth look into the foundational approach and recent developments undertaken by our Sustainable Credit & Platforms Team.

Michael Kashani | Managing Director, Head of Sustainable Credit & Platforms, Primary Author
Lori Shapiro | Director, Senior Stewardship and Engagement Specialist, Primary Author

Apollo has published Volume Three of its Sustainable Credit & Platforms whitepaper: “The Evolution of Sustainable Credit & Platforms at Apollo (Volume III): Broadening the Scope of Sustainability.”

Apollo’s Sustainable Credit & Platforms Team supports the firm’s industry-leading alternative credit and platforms businesses and is fundamentally rooted in our philosophy of driving value creation and addressing stakeholder expectations. Our integrated platform empowers our investment professionals and enables collaboration between investment teams and the Sustainable Credit & Platforms Team. 

Key Takeaways Include:

• Since the publication of our inaugural Whitepaper, the Apollo Sustainable Credit & Platforms Team has continued to scale coverage, supporting strategies across Apollo and many of its origination platforms. This scale has been achieved by adapting existing frameworks and expanding partnerships with additional teams across the firm and our platforms.
• Apollo’s Sustainability Risk Assessment framework is robust and scalable in its assessment process, designed to capture environmental, social, and governance issues material to investment returns. In 2024, Apollo broadened the application of its Sustainability Risk Assessment methodology to several new investment strategies including certain structured real estate transactions.
• With enhanced sustainability due diligence, Apollo’s investment teams are equipped to assess an entity’s sustainability strategy, performance, risks, and opportunities at an early stage in the investment life cycle. In 2024, our sustainability due diligence process evolved further to have greater relevance across a wider variety of sectors, teams, and investment disciplines, underscoring the flexibility of our framework.
• Apollo believes engagement can be an integral part of the lending and investment process and can play a meaningful role in encouraging positive changes in disclosure, behavior, and decision-making thereby driving value creation and addressing stakeholder expectations. In 2024, we engaged across four key stewardship and engagement pillars: transparency and disclosure, financing the energy transition, theme-driven, and company-specific. 
• Apollo remains steadfast in our commitment to utilize our deep experience to provide capital solutions that can drive the transition to a more sustainable future. In response to market demand, in 2024, Apollo launched several strategies with environmental, social, and governance investment guidelines, and introduced innovative financing structures that helped contribute towards Apollo’s climate and transition financing target.
• We continue to expand the scope and depth of reporting, leveraging both internal and external data to generate periodic sustainability reporting for an increasing number of Apollo-managed funds and accounts.