Jake Moeller, senior investment consultant at Square Mile Investment Consulting:
The team managing the UBAM Biodiversity Restoration global equity fund have a dual objective, in that they seek to deliver strong financial returns, while also investing in companies seeking to protect and restore the natural environment.
They seek to identify and invest in companies with the highest and purest degree of environmental impact, across one, or a number, of biodiversity-related themes; circular economy, planet-compatible utilities, green cities and urban spaces, and sustainable management of natural resources, enablers of change, planet-friendly diets, and sustainable food production.
Given that the managers and wider investment team seek to effect positive change relating to biodiversity and natural resource protection and restoration, it is pleasing to see that 3D’s analysis, which maps individual companies’ revenue to positive solutions, identifies a very high alignment of the fund with environmental solutions.
We classify the majority of the fund’s environmental solutions-based holdings under the heading of natural capital, which is applied to companies that are materially involved in sustainably managed natural resources, such as forestry, or water.
Another important and sizeable solution classification within the portfolio is sustainable food, accounted for by companies such as Aker Biomarine Antarctic AS, a Norwegian fishing and biotechnology firm that is dedicated to the sustainable harvest of krill and development of krill-derived biotech products. Their aim is to ensure the well-being of the krill biomass and the ongoing support of the Antarctic ecosystem.