Our sustainability approach / Our sustainability strategy
Our sustainability strategy
In 2024, Oakley consolidated the foundations of its sustainability programme and began planning for the next phase of delivery. In 2025, we built on that platform by strengthening how we prioritise, support and track portfolio initiatives. This enables us to focus on the sustainability topics most material to our business and investments, and to support management teams on both value protection and value creation.
How we prioritise
Oakley takes a materiality-led approach to sustainability, focusing attention and resources on the topics most likely to influence long-term business resilience, performance and stakeholder expectations. We apply a consistent framework across the portfolio, while recognising that material topics vary by sector, geography, operating model and scale. This approach helps ensure that sustainability priorities remain pertinent, proportionate and anchored in the realities of each business.
To support this approach, Oakley collects sustainability data annually from portfolio companies through an internal sustainability survey. The survey captures progress and core ESG KPIs and is informed by a combination of SASB industry guidance, SFDR principal adverse impact (PAI) indicators, ESG Data Convergence Initiative (EDCI) metrics, and Oakley’s knowledge of the sectors in which we invest. The outputs help identify gaps and emerging priorities, inform engagement plans, and guide where Oakley can provide targeted support – both across cohorts of companies facing similar challenges and at an individual company level.
What we focus on
Our sustainability programme prioritises three core themes that are consistently relevant across our operations and investments: 1. Energy and climate change, 2. Employee culture, engagement and wellbeing, and 3. Cybersecurity and data protection. These core themes anchor our approach and sit within a broader set of sustainability topics used to monitor performance and guide engagement across the portfolio. The depth of focus varies by business and materiality, reflecting differences in sector, footprint and operating model. Together, they provide a structured view of sustainability-related risks and opportunities and help identify priority areas for action.
Key sustainability themes across our operations and investments
Energy and
climate change
Employee culture
and engagement
Cybersecurity and
data protection
Wider sustainability themes
Energy and
climate change
Wider sustainability themes
Water and wastewater management
Waste and circularity
Ecological impact
Energy and
climate change
Wider sustainability themes
Employee health and safety
Customer welfare
Society and communities
Energy and
climate change
Wider sustainability themes
Supply chain management
Responsible AI
Business model resilience
How we deliver
Oakley supports portfolio companies through two complementary lenses:
Value protection:
Establishing strong foundations, governance and compliance readiness across core sustainability topics.
Value creation:
Identifying opportunities to strengthen resilience, improve performance and build competitive advantage through sustainability-led initiatives.
In practice, this means combining portfolio-wide support, where common themes cut across multiple companies, with company-specific engagement tailored to the issues most material to each business. Where relevant, Oakley facilitates shared learning, benchmarking and targeted support on cross-portfolio priorities such as climate risk and supply chain resilience, while also working with management teams on bespoke projects that reflect their strategy, footprint and operating context. These approaches are illustrated in TCFD Strategy section and the spotlight on Oakley’s structured supply chain programme.