In this episode, my guest is Jonathan Hirschtritt, Head of Sustainability & Investment at GCM Grosvenor – a leading global alternative asset manager for more than five decades.

The firm manages over $80 billion across the full spectrum of alternatives and has built one of the most comprehensive impact and sustainability investing platforms in private markets.

In 2017, Grosvenor brought Jonathan in to work on strategy and operations, later moving into the role of Deputy COO. Four years later, leadership asked him to take on something very different: to formalize and build Grosvenor’s sustainable and impact investing platform.

The firm already had a long history with underrepresented managers and other initiatives, but this mandate meant creating a dedicated team, new frameworks, and a full reporting system from scratch.

“This was a brand new area… no one really had done impact reporting or sustainable reporting compared to financial reporting.”

Today, Jonathan runs Grosvenor’s sustainable and impact platform – representing roughly a third of the firm’s AUM. It’s spread across private equity, infrastructure, credit, and real estate.

It’s a returns-first model, fully discretionary, but built to be customized. In fact, more than 70% of Grosvenor’s capital is deployed through separate accounts designed around a client’s specific objectives – whether that means climate, affordable housing, labor outcomes, or education.

Jonathan makes a sharp distinction between “sustainable” and “impact,” and for him it comes down to two things: intentionality and measurement. In short, if a GP accidentally does good, that’s great. But that’s not impact unless it was designed that way – and unless you can prove it.

What struck me in our conversation is how much of Grosvenor’s model is built on customization. Every mandate begins with the client’s own theory of change – whether that’s climate, social infrastructure, labor outcomes, or diversity – and then the team constructs an investment program to match.

Jonathan doesn’t talk like a marketer. He talks like a builder. Someone who’s spent years designing a platform that balances customization and scale – and believes that the future of impact is about doing the hard work behind the scenes, even when no one’s watching.

In our conversation, he showed how the real work starts before a dollar is invested – aligning on objectives, setting outcomes, and building them into portfolio construction.

We also discussed:

• the challenges of data reporting
• the distinctions in ESG terminology
• the leverage of private capital
• why impact only scales when it moves in lockstep with performance
• the growing role of AI
• what rising energy demand might mean for infrastructure and climate strategies

Tune in.

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About the SRI 360° Podcast: The SRI 360° Podcast is focused exclusively on sustainable & responsible investing. In each episode, I interview a world-class investor who is an accomplished practitioner from all asset classes.

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Additional Resources:
🔹 Jonathan Hirschtritt LinkedIn

🔹 GCM Grosvenor website

🔹 “Strengthening Outcomes: Impact and Financial Value at Exit,” published by ICM, Morriso