Sustainable Investment Awards 2022

The Breckinridge Capital Advisors issuer engagement report secured the $42 billion fixed income asset manager the Best sustainability report award

The Danish pension fund for the labour market manages about €40 billion ($42 billion) in assets.

After picking up the award in 2020, Affirmative Investment Management (AIM) has once again secured the best fixed income sustainability reporting award as it continues to enhance and evolve its impact reporting approach.

Campo Capital looks to combine agriculture and forestry crops projects with carbon sequestration in one portfolio in Colombia and Peru.

Singapore-based Maitri Asset Management has won Asian Boutique investment manager of the year.

Targeting resource efficiency in its portfolio companies, Osmosis has managed to achieve an average reduction of 61% in carbon, 68% in water and 77% in waste, across its strategies, relative to their benchmarks, it claims.

German company Solactive won climate index provider of the year after a series of innovative climate-focused launches for asset managers and issuers across Europe.

SilverStreet Capital's Silverlands II strategy won Environmental fund of the year in Africa after its managers claimed the prevention of 31 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions related to deforestation in 2021.

The Asian environmental fund of the year and ESG Investment Initiative of the year awards were scooped by the Climate Impact Asia Fund, a collaboration between London- and Singapore-based investment manager Milltrust and WWF Hong Kong.

The SLM Silva Fund from asset manager SLM Partners claimed Environmental fund of the year after becoming the first of its kind to adopt an innovative type of forest management called continuous cover forestry (CCF) in Ireland.

Barn Investment's Greentech Latam Fund has been recognised for its impactful investments in Brazil's food security, clean tech, energy efficiency, and transportation.

Sunwealth's Solar Impact Fund won a second accolade from Environmental Finance this year, as it claimed the North American title of 'Environmental fund of the year'

MSCI ESG Research calls its Implied Temperature Rise model "a powerful, forward-looking tool" that helps investors assess companies' progress toward net-zero targets.

Focusing on future risks and opportunities S&P Global Ratings sees its ESG Evaluation tool as offering the market a fully forward looking environmental, social and governance (ESG) assessment tool.

AllianceBernstein (AB) has developed a tool to help investors assess the risk of modern slavery in their portfolio companies' supply chains.

Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor (CRREM) secured the ESG data initiative of the year for its work in developing decarbonisation pathways that allow the energy-intensive real estate industry to set science-based carbon reduction targets.

Risk Insight claims it became the first company to rate three major African stock exchanges, in South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya.

ChinaBond Pricing Center's (CBPC) innovative ESG evaluation system covers more than 8,000 Chinese onshore public credit bond issuers and A-share listed companies.

FactSet is a financial data and analytics provider that delivers content, analytics, and technology to more than 171,000 investment professionals around the world.

Moody's secured the European ESG data provider of the year award after being praised for its data for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Launched in February this year, Schroders' Engagement Blueprint aligns its engagement process with its ESG policy.

Fidelity International secured the global ESG fixed income fund of the year award for its $73 million Sustainable Reduced Carbon Bond Fund, driven by its focus on delivering 'real world' carbon emission reductions.

Brown Advisory secured the ESG fixed income fund of the year award in North America for its Tax-Exempt Sustainable Bond Fund in recognition of its role supporting the development of sustainable US municipal bond markets.

FTSE Russell has been developing sustainable investment index solutions across asset classes to suit the changing needs of investors and the regulatory landscape.

Phoenix Group has a plan to move £15 billion ($18 billion) of its assets into new sustainable strategies by the end of 2022.

The Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR) is a coalition that was set up in September 2020 to strengthen the resilience of reefs and reef-dependent communities.

Wellington Management has developed a number of data-driven tools and dashboards, which are available to help its internal investors integrate climate and ESG insights into their decision-making processes.

Mauritian private equity firm Adenia Partners won the prize for ESG investment initiative of the year in Africa for its investment in Kenyan rose producer Red Lands Roses.

BNP Paribas Asset Management has snapped up ESG investment initiative of the year for its "refreshing focus on social issues" in its Inclusive Growth strategy.

North Sky Capital's Low-Income Communities (LICs) investment initiative has claimed top spot for ESG initiatives in North America, for its investment strategy combining positive social and environmental impact objectives.

BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group (TIG) and Conservation International won ESG investment initiative of the year, Latin America for their collaboration on a $1 billion investment strategy...

A project from Brazilian sustainable development firm Agrocortex that aims to avoid illegal deforestation in the Amazon rainforest...

Fitch Ratings picked up the ESG research of the year award (fixed income) on its way to also securing the Most transparent credit rating agency (CRA) award for the fourth year in a row.

Over the past year legal firm Webber Wentzel has published a host of articles, reports and analyses about ESG developments across climate change, energy and private equity for an African audience.

A joint report by Ceres, DWS and data experts BlueRisk looked at the amount of financial value that is at risk from water pollution and availability, which is often ignored, with a particular focus on the packaged meat and apparel industry.

Util's inaugural report 'How SDG is ESG?' won ESG research of the year, North America, for its review of the entire US fund market based on social and environmental impact.

Amundi Asset Management secured two awards after its long-standing record as a sustainable fixed income innovator was strengthened by its launch of the first dedicated social bond fund.

Brevet Capital has deployed a significant amount of capital over the past year to support innovative growth companies working on environmental solutions.

Maple-Brown Abbott has committed to align all portfolios across its entire global listed infrastructure (GLI) strategy, with more than $3 billion in assets, to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Mercer has again expanded its sustainable investing advisory team to 24 dedicated specialists located around the world.

After creating the world's first vegan-screened stock index Claire Smith's Beyond Investing last year launched the Europe Vegan Climate and Global Vegan Climate indexes.

Brussels-based Candriam attributes a large part of its record growth in assets under management in 2021 to its stable of sustainability-focused strategies.

In a year that saw it triple its profits as it gained £10 billion ($12.1 billion) in new mandates, Impax Asset Management cemented its position as one of the largest asset managers...

ABP, which manages total asset of about €530 billion and provides pensions to workers in the Dutch government and education sectors, vowed to sell most of the assets covered by this definition by 2023

Tikehau Capital's T2 Energy Transition Fund closed last year at more than €1 billion ($1.1 billion) and by February this year it had invested over €500 million in 10 European companies across clean energy generation, low-carbon mobility and energy efficiency projects.

Montagu this year became one of the first 10 private equity firms to have its targets to reduce its portfolio and operational emissions in line with a net zero transition validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

Actis' real assets energy fund, Actis Energy 5 (AE5), secured over $6 billion investment in February to target energy transition investments globally.

The Downing Renewables and Infrastructure Fund (DORE) achieved a total return of 16.1% to 31 March following its initial public offering (IPO) at the end of 2020.

Zurich Insurance Group can claim to be a frontrunner in the area of sustainable investment

Sweden's AP4 further bolstered its 'quantitative low-carbon strategies' in 2021 - reducing its carbon emissions by a further 23% relative to the previous year

American Century Investments (ACI) has debuted in Environmental Finance's awards with its Health Care Impact Strategy, winning Social fund of the year, Global.

IDB Invest provided $40 million to a private investment fund in Chile seeking to improve funding access for local micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

The Bridge Workforce and Affordable Housing Fund I (BWAHF) won Social fund of the year for building affordable housing communities "to meet the needs of the growing and priced-out 'missing middle'".

Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) and its Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX) have prioritised sustainability-themed education, improvements in data and promoting gender-themed bonds in recent months.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) last year launched its Sustainability and Climate Change Disclosure Guidance consultation papers to assist companies navigating the sustainability disclosure landscape.

Focusing on gender diversity and policy in China's largest companies, Fidelity International's The Smaller Half of China's Sky paper highlights how women today remain on the periphery of company boards and top management in the country.

Morgan Stanley Research's Changing Tides: Investing for Future Water Access looks at the interconnectedness of water, food and climate.

TT International in its Looking beyond low carbon to holistic environmental investing paper argues that the current low carbon approach needs to be supplemented with an environmental solutions strategy.

In its No Rain on the Plain investigative report Planet Tracker revealed how deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is directly affecting the region's ability to reap two crop harvests in a single year.

Goldman Sachs' Black Womenomics research paper highlights the inequitable history and relatively limited economic progress of black women in the US.