Ardian’s goal is to build companies that last. This necessarily places sustainability at the heart of our approach and requires us to prepare them to meet consumers’ expectations, adapt to the climate transition and take responsibility for the social impacts of their activities. Since 2008 we have been developing ways to ensure Ardian and our portfolio companies create positive impacts and that we can measure them accurately. The events of 2020 were a forceful reminder that the goals we seek as res- ponsible investment advocates are also essential pillars of resilience for com- panies everywhere. In early 2020, we assessed theresilience to Covid-19 of the companies in“We are no longer in ourBuyout portfolio and compared our resultsthe phase of raising withtheir sustainability scores from 2019. awareness. The focus now Theg concrete action,of overlap was striking. We seedegreeis takin thisas further proof that responsible invest-demonstrating its impact mentpractices will help make our companies and measuring the effects more resilient and future-proof, and ultima-over time.” tely more valuable. — Candice Brenet POSITIVE IMPACT AT SCALE We group our sustainability efforts under four headings: impact, climate action, diversity and equal opportunities, and profit sharing. During 2020, we developed new ways to address and monitor each of these priorities so that Ardian can advance its work to create positive impact on a much larger scale. We believe that responsible investment is entering a phase that will require greater technical expertise from sustainability professionals. This will enable us to create value-added solutions to the wide range of social and environmental challenges that companies face, as well as to measure progress more effectively and provide more robust evidence of the impact of our work. To meet this challenge, we have invested in our team to add complementary skills and have reorganized roles to allow greater specialization. 2020 ACTIVITY REPORT 15