(Reuters) - Blackstone Inc on Thursday named Amisha Parekh as global head of environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices for its private-equity portfolio, in a bid to deepen its focus on sustainability through its investments. Parekh’s appointment comes at a time when global organizations, investors and regulators are asking for more inclusive and sustainable ways to conduct business, while holding companies accountable for the same amid rising concerns over climate change and a push for diversity at the workplace. Late last month, a group of global private-equity here and pension funds managing over $4 trillion in assets formed a partnership to standardize reporting on ESG performance of portfolio companies. The group, led by Carlyle Group and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), will track data on greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, board diversity and other metrics of companies in their portfolio. Parekh, who will be designated as a managing director within the firm’s portfolio operations group, will lead ESG diligence, policy development and strategy. Parekh had most recently led ESG data acquisition and curation at Bloomberg and prior to that was a senior manager at Deloitte, where her responsibilities included helping consumer goods, retail and manufacturing clients develop sustainability strategies. Reporting by Sohini Podder in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.