To create the ESG Data Convergence Initiative (EDCI) benchmark, the participating GPs gathered environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics from their underlying portfolio companies; anonymized them; and shared them securely with BCG in its role as the benchmarking and advisory partner to the initiative. BCG’s Expand benchmarking team then reviewed and validated the data before aggregating it centrally into a benchmark.

In our inaugural analysis, the EDCI data set included data from 105 private equity funds and nearly 2,000 portfolio companies. Building on last year’s momentum, the 2023 data set nearly doubled that response rate, with about 185 GPs and 4,300 portfolio companies contributing more than 62,000 individual data points.

The increased participation this year has resulted in an even more diverse benchmark data set of companies in the private markets—across regions, sectors, and company size—allowing for a closer comparison with the universe of publicly traded companies. While coverage of the US and Europe remained strong, there was also significant growth in responses from other regions, notably Asia-Pacific: triple the number of portfolio companies in that region submitted data compared with last year.

The diversity of industries within sectors also increased, especially in the financial services, renewables, and extractive and minerals processing sectors, and now reflects the makeup of the overall universe of private companies with reasonable accuracy. In addition, the proportion of companies contributing multiple years of data more than doubled this year, to 46% from 22% last year, allowing for a more detailed analysis of ESG trends over time.

The data set for the public markets was drawn from over 6,000 comparable public companies across major stock exchanges, sourced from Refinitiv. Companies with market caps above $2 billion were excluded to allow for a more accurate comparison with the EDCI benchmark; still, the two data sets are not entirely equivalent, as Exhibit 1 shows. The average private company in our data set is somewhat smaller, and more likely to be in the technology and services industries, than the average public company.


In the EDCI’s first year, more than 80% of portfolio companies submitted data for the majority of the EDCI’s mandatory metrics—which companies were required to submit if they had them. This year has seen continued progress; the number of companies submitting mandatory data increased by an average of 3 percentage points. This suggests that, in its second year, the EDCI continues to be instrumental in encouraging the collection and tracking of consistent ESG metrics.

While response rates on environmental metrics continued to trail those regarding social issues this year—likely because of the difficulty and complexity involved in collecting this data—they improved considerably. Rates for both Scope 1 and 2 emissions metrics, for example, rose by nearly 10 percentage points. And 60% of portfolio companies submitted data for women in the C-suite, a new metric for 2023. (See Exhibit 2.)


The EDCI benchmark has been shared with all participating GPs and LPs for their internal use through an online platform, with firms able to conduct their own customized analysis of the benchmark. For 2023, a number of additional useful functions (including the ability to cut the benchmark at more granular subsector levels and visualize it on third-party platforms) have been introduced.

As more GPs and LPs join the EDCI, the data will become even more useful and the insights even stronger. If you are interested in learning more:

• Visit this website for more information about the initiative, including how to participate.
• Contact the EDCI with any questions at info@esgdc.org.