DEI and ESG seeing backslide in Canada’s investment sector
Stronger industry leadership is needed to build a sustainable, diverse, and inclusive venture capital and private equity ecosystem in Canada, according to the findings of BDC Capital’s annual report on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) in the sector.
The report shows that while there has been some progress around diversity, particularly gender diversity, most metrics have remained relatively stagnant year-over-year.
The percentage of general partners where women make up at least half of employees increased by 16 per cent since 2021, while visible minorities increased by nine per cent over the same period.
However, 55 per cent of general partnerships remain entirely male-owned, and 21 per cent of the investment committees are composed exclusively of men.
The integration of climate-related initiatives has also slowed to a crawl. Only 13 of the 49 general partners who responded had set a carbon-neutral objective in 2024, less than in the previous year.
The 2024 report described progress as “incremental,” saying the sector “seems to be taking two steps forward and one step back” when it comes to integrating DEI and ESG best practices.
Research conducted by Korn Ferry has found that diverse and inclusive teams result in better decision-making 87 per cent of the time.
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