- January 13, 2021
- Posted by: FFI Solutions
- Category: Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Firm builds on its climate-focused environmental capabilities with new product offerings, including ESG- and impact investing-related solutions
NEW YORK, NY— January 13, 2021: Fossil Free Indexes (FFI), a firm committed to climate-aligned investing, has rebranded to FFI Solutions to better reflect the company’s expanded product and service offerings for market participants intending to transition to more sustainable investment strategies. Building on the strengths of The Carbon Underground 200TM (CU200), the firm’s internationally-recognized list of the top 200 publicly-traded fossil fuel reserve owners, FFI Solutions is now offering additional research and screening tools, as well as its own Portfolio Carbon Diagnostics, ESG and impact integration tools, and index and product design capabilities.
“Expanding our research product offerings across the sustainable investing spectrum is a natural extension of our climate-centric strengths,” explains Michael Palmieri, CEO of FFI Solutions. “Investors are now seeking a continuum of sustainability research and products, from divestment to ESG and impact investing strategies that align values with performance. As we’ve sourced new data and developed technology-driven products focused on these investing trends, it has become clear that we needed to rebrand the company to better communicate the breadth of our offerings.”
Used by investors and investment managers to screen over $7 billion in assets, the CU200 exclusionary list is the recognized standard for divesting coal, oil, and gas reserve-owning companies. FFI Solutions is adding a new Heavy Carbon service that expands its current Tar Sands 20 service to include thermal coal research and screening capabilities. It also plans to launch additional exclusionary screens beyond fossil fuel fuels focused areas including tobacco and e-cigarettes, private prisons, and diversity, among others. The new Portfolio Carbon Diagnostics also builds on the research strengths of the CU200 by providing investors with on-demand snapshots and comprehensive reports on the carbon exposures and ESG controversies in their portfolios. Backtesting capabilities, which measure the hypothetical impact of excluding fossil-fuel holdings on portfolio performance, are also under development.
Other offerings include ESG and impact integration solutions, which combine extensive market, ESG, and factor data with flexible backtesting, scenario analysis and stress testing analytics, giving clients the clarity to make well-informed decisions as they transition to more sustainable portfolios. Lastly, index and product design services provide asset owners and asset managers with the ability to develop benchmarks or new index products that meet the market’s demand for ESG and sustainable investing products.
FFI Solutions’ new product offerings complement its Energy Transition Long-Short (US) (ETLS-US) strategy, a rules-based model portfolio that the company developed in 2019. The index strategy, which is long clean energy companies and short select CU200 fossil fuel reserve owners, is available to RIAs as a model portfolio on the SmartX managed account platform. The ETLS-US was the top performing SRI/ESG and long-short model portfolio on the SmartX platform in 2020.
“The move toward climate-aligned investment strategies has accelerated in recent years as institutional investors reallocate their portfolios away from coal, and oil and gas companies and toward clean energy and other ESG-focused opportunities,” adds Christopher Ito, CEO of FFI Holdings LLC, the parent company of FFI Solutions. “With our array of offerings, we stand ready to serve institutional investors, asset managers, family offices, and RIAs as they seek innovative, performance-driven solutions that incorporate today’s climate-friendly and socially-conscious investment principles.”
About FFI Solutions
FFI Solutions (www.ffisolutions.com) is a research and analytics-driven advisory firm that empowers investors and asset managers to transition to more sustainable investments. Rooted in climate change impact since 2013, it is the creator of The Carbon Underground 200TM, an exclusionary screen used by some of the world’s leading asset managers and investment firms as the tool for the transition of more than $7 billion in fossil free portfolios and newly created sustainable products. FFI Holdings LLC is the parent company of FFI Solutions and FFI Advisors, (www.ffiadvisors.com), a performance and mission-driven investment manager focused on developing climate-aligned strategies.
Contact:
Lucy Di Rosa
Head of Communications
lucydirosa@ffisolutions.com
+1 (646) 568-5900 X 703
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