Guest post by: Dan Mistler, Partner, ESG Data and Analytics, ACA Group

For many years, there has been a clear dividing line in sustainability data separating what can be reliably known about public markets investments and the far more limited visibility available in private markets.

Public companies have long benefited from compulsory regulations and voluntary disclosures, creating a deep, well-established foundation of sustainability data available in public sources.   Private markets, by contrast, have historically been a data black hole. Data providers have relied on media scanning for anything related to a private company’s profile, value-chain linkages between private and public companies, and modeled estimates to approximate a company’s sustainability posture when data is unavailable elsewhere. This has been a workable approach, but one that has historically made broad analytics difficult and left private markets at a structural data disadvantage.

However, we are now entering the age of information abundance. Advances in AI-enabled workflow tools and enhanced data scraping are generating new volumes of data on private companies, to the point that evidence-based sustainability metrics for public and private names can, at times, be virtually indistinguishable.

For senior leaders overseeing ESG and compliance, this shift matters because it changes expectations: private markets can no longer rely on limited data as a rationale for lighter sustainability analysis or reporting. At the same time, private markets managers in the U.S. are looking to a new audience in fundraising: wealth.

Wealth Platforms and Demand for Sustainability Information

Federal regulatory changes of the past year have paved the way for increased private markets investment from wealth segments in the U.S. While the floodgates have yet to open fully, the direction of travel is clear, the availability of private market options is expected to expand across all wealth tiers.

This raises a practical question: do wealth clients actually want sustainability-related products?

Research and market observations suggest that interest is significant and continues to grow, although it varies by segment. Findings published in 2025 indicate the following trends:

  • Interest grows with wealth: Morgan Stanley’s 2025 global survey found that 72% of the general population said they are very or somewhat interested in sustainable investing, versus 88% among investors with >$100k investable assets.
  • Interest grows with youth: The same study found that 99% of Gen Z and 97% of Millennials are very or somewhat interested in sustainable investing, and they are far more likely to say they are very interested than Boomers.
  • Higher wealth classes tend to see more opportunity than risk mitigation: UBS’s 2025 Global Family Office report showed that of family offices taking sustainability into account in investments, 46% viewed it as providing attractive opportunities (up from 42% the prior year), while 33% viewed it as essential for managing financial/non-financial risks (down from 47% the previous year).
  • There is a supply gap: EY’s 2025 global wealth client research found that 39% of all clients (across segments) are interested in values-based investing (explicitly including ESG/Impact), while only 20% say that their advisor has discussed values-based options with them.

For asset managers, this means that sustainability data may increasingly become a differentiator in fundraising conversations, particularly as wealth intermediaries look to assess products side by side.

While these findings are consistent with what we are observing in our work with large wealth platforms, we also see an education gap; more clients express interest in sustainability-related products than those who feel highly knowledgeable about them.

Taken together, these dynamics suggest a market where interest and demand is ahead of current supply and likely to continue increasing, particularly given the high levels of interest reported among younger investors (the 99% Gen Z figure is notable, even if expected).

This widening gap between interest and informed product choice places additional pressure on firms to communicate sustainability characteristics clearly, consistently, and with credible data behind them.

Understanding How Sustainability Preferences Differ Across Wealth Segments

To respond to this shift, private fund managers will need to “speak sustainability” in a way that resonates with wealth audiences. This requires a degree of flexibility, as interest areas and expectations differ across segments. To summarize the 2025 research noted above:

  • Mass affluent (generally >$100k): Demand is focused on values alignment, with the additions of requiring simplicity and a foundation of trust.
  • High net worth (generally >$1M): Demand is focused broadly on values alignment.
  • Very/ultra-high net worth (generally >$5M/$10M): Demand is focused on greenfield opportunity identification that aligns with philanthropic goals.

Addressing these expectations requires describing sustainability characteristics in a way that aligns with clients’ interests and is comparable across the market.

Practically speaking, the only legitimate options available today for private markets managers to benchmark and compare ESG fund performance are participation in the ESG Data Convergence Initiative (EDCI) or the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB).

While EDCI has seen broad adoption within some alternatives strategies (mostly private equity and private credit), transparency remains limited (with no look through to individual peer comparables) and the small count of metrics (18 core) can constrain usability. As a result, most private fund managers (except for GRESB-reporting funds) rely on general narrative descriptions supported by bespoke metrics, which makes nuanced comparisons difficult.

Emerging Opportunities and Risks

Describing the sustainability driver behind a given fund’s unique performance (or its alignment with values) may or may not be feasible with EDCI metrics. This creates challenges that emerging data tools may seek to solve, particularly for firms trying to present their sustainability performance in a way that is financially relevant, competitive within a platform environment, and unique enough to speak to specific stakeholder groups and sustainable investment themes.

And this is to say nothing of the effect that enhanced data may have on returns. Correlating returns to sustainability is a challenge in any context, let alone in a data-poor environment. Participating leaders will increasingly need to understand how emerging datasets can support more rigorous analysis without introducing new governance or interpretive risks.

Private fund sustainability performance may be a hidden gem waiting to be unearthed in the wealth context, but getting there will require something new. The increased data availability supported by advances in AI-driven data processing may enable more advanced regression analyses, and more sophisticated future users will be able to normalize, benchmark, and translate data into relevant insights.

This reality isn’t waiting at some distant date; it is here today for those willing to explore it. The only thing lacking is tools with the right governance guardrails to ensure the data is reliable.