Our clients span a wide spectrum: investors seeking to manage climate change risks, asset managers planning to develop products, and investment service providers looking to offer climate related advice.
Asset Owners
We help asset owners seeking to implement climate responsible investing strategies by providing screening and investment solutions that align with their objectives and constraints.
Whether funding employee benefits, managing a family office, or supporting philanthropic, charitable and educational programs, our approach recognizes the varied mandates of institutional portfolios. We engage investors to understand their requirements, and as necessary, customize our solutions to meet the needs of fiduciaries, external stakeholders and other relevant constituents.
Asset owners must align multiple objectives and stakeholder positions with the risks and opportunities presented by climate change.
Common challenges include:
- avoiding bad actors (e.g., fossil fuel divestment)
- leveraging power as shareholders to effect change
- aligning portfolios with their company/firm values
- managing the risks of the energy transition
- making a positive impact
- generating returns
While our screening and investment solutions are designed to satisfy multiple investor objectives, we can help you determine and design specific bespoke strategies tailored to your unique goals and constraints.
We help you gain the insights necessary to make informed decisions that result in actionable climate investment strategies consistent with your objectives.
In 2017 Barnard College decided to divest its endowment from certain oil & gas reserve owners whose words and actions were not consistent with current climate science, and therefore not consistent with the college’s values. We helped the college develop criteria and methodology for evaluating 30 companies from The Carbon Underground 200, and performed the research necessary for the college to make its tailored divestment decision.
Asset Managers
We help asset managers assess their product line-up and understand the competitive landscape for Socially Responsible, ESG and Impact investing to identify which of these investment strategies best aligns with their brand and core competencies. We then custom design products around climate change and the energy transition to be licensed or white-labeled, with ongoing marketing and investor support from our experienced team of investment professionals. We work with:
- Separate Account Managers
- Mutual Funds/ETFs
- Hedge Funds
- Private Equity and Venture Funds
Investors are seeking products and investment strategies that address the risks and opportunities associated with the energy transition and climate change. They are also assessing whether the products offered by asset managers and advisors incorporate sustainable and responsible investment criteria. Those managers and advisors that fail to address these considerations will be challenged to retain and gather assets.
Our suite of research, assessment and product solutions can help asset managers develop climate change related investment products. We license our exclusion lists and investment strategies while also working with managers to develop custom product solutions.
We can serve as your sustainable investment product development partner, leveraging our team’s research expertise and experience in creating climate investing strategies.
A global asset manager was awarded a $125 million family office mandate by pitching an actively managed tax-advantaged equity portfolio with an exclusion overlay of The Carbon Underground 200. This winning bid bested passively managed broad market index proposals that would exclude specific energy and industrial sectors. By engaging with the family office and understanding their values, the asset manager’s best-in-class investment approach combined with our internationally recognized exclusion research won the account.
Investor Services Providers
Investor services providers deliver advice and help manage the relationship between asset owners and their asset managers. We can help investment service providers with a detailed assessment of emissions risk in client portfolios and structure bespoke strategies for their forward-thinking clients who seek to create their own custom solution. Investment service providers include:
- Investment Consultants
- Banks and Broker Dealers
- Law Firms
- Risk Management Firms
Organizations serving the investment community often lack the specialized expertise required to effectively counsel clients on climate change investing. As these investors turn to you for help, you require deep-rooted sustainable investment expertise you can count on.
Our suite of research, assessment and product solutions can provide support for your client service activities.
We can serve as your outsourced research partner, providing information on market trends or company specific activities.
A national law firm needed additional data to help a client understand the nature of global coal reserves. FFI worked with the law firm to design a project using The Carbon Underground 200 that identified coal reserves and embedded emissions by rank, use, production and sales. This project required the mapping of individual mine-level reserves data to coal company owners and the estimate of coal sales by rank utilizing spot coal prices in effect at the time.