Our Story
A Quiet Force for Global Good: Introducing the Ascent Partners Foundation
On a weekday morning in Hong Kong, a small team drafts a modest request to a global standard‑setter: could we remove the cost barrier that keeps smaller firms from disclosing climate risk?
It isn’t a headline moment or a gala pledge. It’s an administrative act—a nudge—that turns expertise into a public good. That’s the Ascent Partners Foundation: a builder of quiet systems—licenses, templates, open tools—that make sustainability doable for the many, not just the few.
APF is fully funded by Ascent Partners. That single‑source model gives the Foundation long‑range stability and the freedom to publish tools free of charge. But stability is not the story; portability is—the ability to translate high‑level standards into practical, repeatable steps an SME can follow on a Monday morning.
The Power of Convening: Why Collaboration Is Our Core Strategy
The green transition won’t be led by lone heroes. It will be choreographed by coalitions. You can see that in the cadence of the Asia‑Pacific Business Forum (APBF), where UNESCAP and the ESCAP Sustainable Business Network bring public officials, corporate operators, and entrepreneurs into the same conversation under a shared frame: an Asia‑Pacific Green Deal for Business. In 2023, the Forum in Hong Kong made a simple point unavoidable: we decarbonize not by inspiration alone, but by infrastructure—disclosures, procurement, and interoperable tools.
APF’s craft is the seating plan: getting the right people beside each other, then converting what’s said into working artifacts—playbooks, checklists, and software that anyone can use.