Newsletter: July
Nature health-check: Assessing your portfolio
At Canbury, our team is dedicated to helping investors navigate the complex landscape of nature, biodiversity loss and its potential impact on investments.
We collaborate with asset owners and managers to identify nature-related impacts and dependencies across all asset classes. We leverage a range of public data sets and leading frameworks to advise prominent UK investors. This includes the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation’s newly announced second edition Nature Target Setting Framework, enabling financial institutions to set and achieve targets to mitigate biodiversity loss in alignment with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’s 2030 goals.
We deliver (a) data-sets, including portfolio and company-level heat-map reports, (b) deep-dive company analyses, and (c) training tailored to your team’s prior sustainability knowledge.
Our analysis is bespoke to our clients’ nature assessment needs. Our data sets include:
- Land, freshwater and marine ecosystem use
- Air, soil and water pollutants
- Biological interferences
- Species abundance
We ‘heat-map’ portfolio and company-level impacts and dependencies to highlight areas of greatest risk:
In analysing your portfolio for nature-related impacts and dependencies, we identify and rank the biggest risk drivers in your portfolio. For a greater level of detail and for targeted asset-level analysis and engagement, we can link risks to company-specific impacts using open-source geospatial data, for example. Our data is transparent, publicly sourced, and leverages NGO expertise.
As our approach is bespoke, and at the higher-level, incorporates datasets that consider the value chain impact of a sector, we target the common concern of focusing solely on company-level data.
To supplement data and analysis, we offer training at all levels for sustainability teams, investment teams, C-suite, and board members:
Thanks to our use of AI throughout our processes, we’re price-competitive. To learn more about our nature health-check, reach out to Ben Wilmot (ben.wilmot@canbury.io).
As our approach is bespoke, and at the higher-level, incorporates datasets that consider the value chain impact of a sector, we target the common concern of focusing solely on company-level data.
To supplement data and analysis, we offer training at all levels for sustainability teams, investment teams, C-suite, and board members:
Laws, lobbying and links to deforestation in Canada’s boreal
Canada’s boreal forest, the world’s largest intact forest and the land’s largest carbon sink, is under threat from deforestation.
Numerous industries, such as logging, oil and gas, and mining, operate within and on the edges of the boreal forest, giving companies a substantial influence on deforestation and related policies. As a collective voice of their respective industries, trade associations and company board members have considerable power in shaping policies through lobbying, and, by proxy through engagement, so too do the companies’ investors.
“At PRI in Person in October, 2,000 of the world’s investors will meet to discuss key sustainability issues in Toronto. This presents us with a once-in-a-decade opportunity to place conservation of the boreal forest at the forefront of conversations around nature and climate change in the investor community…
In the lead-up to the event, Canbury will undertake a project to identify the commodity trade flows, the policy frameworks and the companies most influential on deforestation in Canada’s boreal forest with the intention of driving investor engagement”, writes Emmy Shaw for Responsible Investor.
Click here to read the full article, or get in touch with Emmy Shaw (emmy.shaw@canbury.io) to learn more about the project.
The boreal project is supported by MSCI Sustainability Institute. Additional investor partnership and expertise is welcome.
Mapping company influence on nature: PRI’s Spring
Spring, the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) stewardship initiative for nature, aims to address global biodiversity loss by 2030 by engaging institutional investors to influence corporate practices on forest loss and land degradation.
As of 19 June, 204 investors have endorsed the initiative, totalling $15 trillion (USD) in asset managed.
In partnership with Argentina-based consultancy Acrux Partners, we developed the company-selection methodology behind Spring, and determined 80 of the companies most influential on deforestation. We harnessed the latest Large Language Models (LLMs) to determine and highlight companies active in policy arenas linked to deforestation through lobbying activities.
The latest batch of companies, released in June 2024, include:
Spring is just one nature project we’ve worked on. Get in contact with Ben Wilmot (ben.wilmot@canbury.io) to join our other clients and assess your nature-risks and inform your engagements.
What our nature clients have to say…
Canbury Insights, together with Acrux, supported PRI in the company selection framework for Spring, its stewardship initiative for nature. This work was crucial for the design of the initiative, and Canbury’s desk research, large language models and expert interviews resulted in an impressive, in-depth methodology that has been received positively within PRI and by external stakeholders. In addition, it was a pleasure to work with such a professional and responsive team.
Tim Steinweg, Head of Stewardship – Nature, Principles for Responsible Investment
We enjoy a strong working relationship with Canbury on climate and nature reporting and climate scenario analysis. We’re impressed with expertise, technical knowledge and the scale of work the team has delivered.
Emine Isciel, Head of Climate and Environment, Storebrand Asset Management
It’s great working with the Canbury team. We’ve found them to be experts in their fields and responsive to our needs. We will continue to partner with Canbury on TCFD reporting, Stewardship Code reporting, and more.
Nikolaj Babic, Sustainable Investment Senior Manager, J O Hambro Capital Management
Welcome to Lucy Hussona!
Canbury is delighted to welcome Lucy Hussona. Lucy will be working on transition plans, stewardship, and nature. Lucy brings stewardship expertise from her previous role as Stewardship and Corporate Governance Policy Associate at the Financial Reporting Council, in addition to her CFA Certificate in ESG Investing.
Get in touch with Lucy (lucy.hussona@canbury.io) and learn how to navigate the nature reporting landscape.