Case Study: Ares Management expands portfolio emissions coverage with Watershed

How Ares Management is advancing decarbonization in its portfolio

Ares Management, a global alternative investment manager, needed a better way to measure and manage emissions across a large and diverse portfolio of more than 3,000 companies. Its manual spreadsheet-based process only covered 35% of invested assets and was becoming too inefficient for complex calculations, reporting, and decision-making. Ares partnered with Watershed and used Watershed Finance to create a more standardized, source-level approach to climate data.

With Watershed, Ares standardized data collection, improved emissions methodologies across investment types, and built a reliable system for reporting and analysis. The result was a major expansion in emissions coverage from 35% of invested assets in 2022 to 82% in 2023, plus stronger investor reporting and the launch of Ares’ Climate Transition (ACT) Program. Watershed also gave Ares a central source of truth for climate data, helping the team prioritize high-impact engagement opportunities and scale decarbonization efforts across the portfolio.

Ares Management

Joe Indvik

Climate Strategy Lead