We study the effect of the buyout financing on the company's ESG commitment. Our analysis covers 182 buyouts and 182 comparable US companies between 2010 and 2023. We find that companies selected for a buyout have a significantly higher ESG commitment prior to the LBO than in the post-buyout period. The lower level of ESG commitment is explained by a weakened governance score. In addition, we observe a deterioration in the ESG commitment of acquired companies relative to their peers in the post-buyout period. Our multivariate analysis confirms this result, demonstrating that buyout financing is negatively related to the gap between LBOs and their comparables, and is associated with a negative variation in the annual variation of the ESG score. A more in-depth analysis of the governance pillar shows that CEO power is a strong explanation for the decline in the governance pillar score.