Evenlode Investment today announces its interim climate targets have been accepted by the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative. The independent Oxfordshire-based investment manager committed to its targets within 12 months of its joining NZAM last June.
Evenlode Investment’s targets cover 100% of its total assets under management (AUM) and aim for:
- 100% of financed emissions in material sectors to be aligned, achieving net zero or under direct or collective engagement by the end of 2022.
- 50% of AUM in material sectors to be aligning, aligned or achieving net zero by 2025, and 100% by 2030.
- 100% of AUM in material sectors to be aligned to or achieving net zero by 2040.
- 51.6% reduction in emissions per £10k invested across scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2030.
Commenting on the announcement, Charlie Freitag, stewardship analyst at Evenlode Investment, said:
“These targets are in line with our goal of achieving net zero by 2050 or earlier for 100% of our AUM. Importantly, these targets cover 100% of our scope 1, 2 and 3 portfolio emissions.
“We are able to do this because we have sufficient high-quality scope 3 data for our holding companies through our annual portfolio emissions analysis. Scope 3 data is derived from the CDP as well as company reports and our own modelling and quality-checked in detail.”
In support of these targets, Evenlode Investment recently published a Net Zero Engagement & Voting Policy, which outlines the stewardship actions it will take to achieve its engagement and decarbonisation targets, including direct and collective engagement with portfolio companies, policy engagement, and active voting.
Ben Peters, portfolio manager at Evenlode Investment, said:
“The policy clearly sets out our engagement objectives for portfolio companies depending on where they are on their net zero alignment journey, as well as the steps we will take should these objectives not be met within the set timeframe.
“We have also this year integrated emissions and net zero alignment data into our proprietary software system, EDDIE, to allow analysts and fund managers to take companies’ climate risk and risk management into account in their investment decisions with more ease.”
What is NZAM
The Net Zero Asset Managers initiative is an international group of asset managers committed to supporting the goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner, in line with global efforts to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius; and to supporting investing aligned with net zero emissions by 2050 or sooner. The initiative was launched in December 2020 and has to date garnered support from 273 signatories with $61.3trn in AUM.
