As the pandemic-related restrictions are lifted, people come out in force. This week, we caught up with no less than five! Innovative digital solutions are popping up and we talked to Anton Ljung, CEO and founder of Esgaia (previously Acty) who offer a specialised digital engagement solution and to Mamadou-Abou Sarr, co-founder of V-Square Quantitative Management, a sustainability-focused manager who also proposes a much-needed ESG data interface. Also in Stockholm, we spoke to Fam Evaldsson, who recently joined Storebrand Asset Management as Director for Distribution and talks about why sustainability integration is so crucial. In another short interview, Christina Olivecrona who is leaving AP2 shares similar thoughts. “Sustainability work has to be relevant, in order to be used,” she says. Meanwhile, Ulf Erlandsson, founder of the Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute recruited Justine Leigh-Bell former Deputy CEO of the Climate Bonds Initiative as Executive Director.
The Investment Case for Sustainable Food
Europe’s first sustainable food ETF
Also about sustainable food, this week’s Snap dissects the arguments of Swedish researchers on the effects of switching diets away from animal proteins on the local ecosystem, citing a couple of opposing papers that have made the front page of the local press. Earlier this week, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 jointly to three scientists of which two are credited with laying the foundation of our knowledge of the Earth’s climate and how humanity influences it.
On the bond front, we reached out to Marie Giertz, CIO at Kåpan Pensioner which committed an initial €26 million to a new sustainable senior secured loan fund launched by M&G‘s private assets division. Meanwhile, Gränges, a Swedish aluminium company issued a sustainability-linked bond, the largest part of which was lapped up by Swedish asset managers.
This week as well, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) announced a revision of the GRI Standards to strengthen requirements and deliver an enhanced level of transparency for ESG impacts. And while the ongoing consumption-driven recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed global trade flows to return to their previous path, exceeding their pre-pandemic level, Triodos Investment Management warns that “by returning to the old hyper-globalised status quo resilience and sustainability have again been left out of the equation.”
