French quant shop Tobam is to apply a “carbon footprint reduction policy” to its anti-benchmark credit strategies.
The Paris-based asset manager is applying the new carbon policy across its fixed income portfolios, roughly a year after introducing a similar policy across its equity strategies. It is aiming to reduce the carbon footprint of its portfolios by at least 20% compared to the carbon output of the reference benchmark.
Tobam has operated a firm-wide carbon compensation programme since 2011, which seeks to compensate 150% of the carbon it emits by doing business, each year.
A company spokesperson told ESG Clarity that the company includes within its fixed income portfolio construction process a constraint to reduce the overall carbon intensity of the portfolio by 20% compared to the overall carbon intensity of the benchmark.
“In line with our mission of providing rational and professional solutions to long term investors in the context of efficient markets, Tobam has had a longstanding commitment to upholding ESG issues,” explains Yves Choueifaty, founder and chief executive officer.
“The systematic implementation of the carbon footprint reduction to all our equity and fixed income strategies is consistent with our investment beliefs of long-term investing and integration of ESG across the board rather than having a dedicated sustainable and responsible funds range.”
Choueifaty added that the business considers sustainability to be “a core value.”
Tobam manages around £8bn ($10bn) of assets and has a team of more than 50 investment professionals across the company.
“Our first initiative to implement a systematic carbon footprint reduction across our equities strategies received genuine enthusiasm across our network,” said Christophe Roehri, the company’s deputy chief executive officer.
“This alignment between our investment process and our values is particularly relevant in a context where investors around the world are not only looking for sustainable approaches but are now also looking to measure the actual impact of these approaches.”
