Responsible Investment Forum New York 2027: AI and Capital

Responsible Investment Forum: New York is scheduled for March 9–10, 2027 at Convene, 117 W 46th Street in New York. New Private Markets, part of PEI Group, hosts the private-markets gathering in partnership with PRI. The announced program connects sustainability with AI, infrastructure and investment risk, giving technology operators a view into the questions their capital providers may bring to the table.

A data centre has to make sense in a financial model and in the community around it. Putting AI governance and data-centre acceptance into the same forum brings that commercial tension into focus. Investors considering AI-enabled growth also need to understand the physical dependencies and operating responsibilities that accompany it.

The 2027 advisory board is published, while a complete current speaker roster remains unconfirmed in the official pages reviewed. The organizer is directing prospective attendees toward updates and eligibility-based allocator applications. Those distinctions matter for anyone deciding whether this March gathering belongs on a working calendar.

AI infrastructure brings the neighborhood into diligence

The International Energy Agency's Energy and AI report, published in 2025, estimated global data-centre electricity consumption at 415 TWh in 2024. Its base outlook projected demand of about 945 TWh by 2030. The forecast carries uncertainty around adoption, efficiency and energy constraints; it nevertheless provides a tangible backdrop for discussing infrastructure investment before projects reach operation.

Private-market investors have several ways to encounter that exposure. They may own infrastructure, finance businesses using AI or hold portfolio companies whose operating plans depend on reliable computing. The risks arrive through different doors, but the questions eventually reach someone responsible for committing capital and explaining the assumptions behind it.

For technology operators, a community conversation can influence how an infrastructure plan proceeds. Investors examining an AI business may need to ask where the computing capacity comes from, which dependencies sit outside the company's control and how those dependencies affect delivery. These are diligence questions raised by the program's combination of themes, rather than findings about any named project.

The forum's proposed discussions also include cyber and data security. AI adoption can therefore be examined alongside the responsibilities it creates for portfolio companies. A manager can ask how an efficiency estimate was measured, who can challenge it and what information would change the investment case. That makes this program relevant beyond teams carrying sustainability in their job titles. DevCuration’s coverage of the Private Fund Compliance Operations Forum examines a related conversation about AI oversight in private funds.

A lending lens joins equity and infrastructure

A dedicated private-credit stream is planned for day 2, alongside private equity and infrastructure. This is a useful development for a private-markets audience whose exposure can span ownership and lending. The same operating issue may matter to several investors while leaving each with different information needs and influence over a company.

An equity owner may be able to pursue changes inside a portfolio business. A lender needs to understand what can be observed and discussed through the financing relationship. Attendees can use the forum to compare those approaches: which indicators arrive regularly, which questions require deeper engagement and where a sustainability concern becomes relevant to an asset's resilience. The distinction is analytical, with no claim that a particular panel will prescribe an answer.

The organizer also lists physical climate risk, water and insurance among the areas for discussion. For an operating team, these subjects can connect facilities, continuity planning and the cost of keeping a business functioning. For investors, they create an opportunity to question whether reporting describes the exposure well enough to support a decision.

A useful preparation exercise is to bring 1 concrete investment question, with the evidence already collected and the gap still visible. A climate-risk service provider might ask what additional information makes its analysis usable. An AI governance company might examine how investment teams distinguish a policy from evidence of practice. The forum offers a setting for these conversations; any commercial result still depends on the participants and their work afterward.

Advisers shape the program before speakers take the stage

The 2027 advisory board includes Karin Bouwmeester, PGGM's Sustainability and ESG Expert for Private Equity, and Zomo Fisher, Head of Sustainability & ESG at Hellman & Friedman. Yohan Hill, Principal & Director of ESG and Responsible Investing at Adams Street Partners, also appears on the board. Their published advisory relationship connects the program to people working on sustainability within private-market investment organizations.

Blue Owl Capital Managing Director Nikita Singhal, a member of its Responsible Investing & ESG team, is another listed adviser. Her employer describes responsibilities spanning integration strategy and client engagement. Taken together, these roles help explain why the forum's discussion can reach investment processes, portfolio work and the expectations managers hear from clients.

Advisory membership should be read as advisory membership. The organizer's older agenda page retains 2026 speakers and sessions beneath a 2027 event header, so those names cannot establish next year's bookings. The same caution applies to last year's attendee and sponsor logos: they describe prior participation, without confirming who will attend or sponsor in March 2027.

For a reader evaluating relevance, the board is useful evidence of how the program is being shaped. The next question is which current sessions and speakers will help answer the reader's specific problem. Tracking those announcements is more productive than treating an impressive historical roster as a promise of access.

Plan the conversations and check the access rules

The official networking page describes an event app for arranging meetings and structured opportunities across the 2 days. Its published schedule starts registration at 07:30 on March 9, with the reception ending at 18:45; March 10 registration begins at 07:45 and the conference closes at 15:45. These are the organizer's current schedule details and should be checked again as the program develops.

The LP-only breakfast and GP-LP workshop are invitation only. Qualifying allocator passes are subject to organizer review, with fee-based advisers and managers raising capital excluded from that complimentary route. Prospective general attendees can register for updates; the linked page currently marks registration closed, so an expression of interest should not be treated as a purchased ticket.

The venue is Convene at 117 West 46th Street, New York, NY 10036. The setting gives investors and operators a shared place to compare questions that otherwise travel through separate investment, lending and sustainability processes. Arriving with a specific evidence gap gives those conversations a purpose that can survive the trip back to the office.

As the March program develops, AI infrastructure builders and the people financing them will have more detail to work with. Community acceptance, governance and resilience already sit beside value creation in the announced program. The useful follow-through is to identify which of those questions belongs in the next financing discussion, and whose evidence is still missing from it.