Alliance Trust Launch Two New Funds
Alliance Trust have recently launched two new ethically screened funds (Sustainable Future Cautious Managed and SF Defensive Managed) to complement their 7 other ethical funds. The two new funds are mixed asset funds (corporate bonds and equities) and sit at the less risky end of the investment spectrum. Alliance Trust now have £1.6bn under management in their ethical funds and are therefore one of the largest SRI fund managers in the UK. The funds look at four key sustainability themes that cover environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and how businesses will be affected by these trends.
The themes are:
- Quality of life – they focus on companies whose products and services deliver real improvements in well-being. These businesses include healthcare providers, particularly in life-saving drugs as well as education, healthy eating and healthy lifestyles.
- Sustainable consumption – covers technologies that enable us to use resources more efficiently. This includes the treatment of water and waste and environmental technologies. In short, those companies helping us do more while using fewer resources.
- Climate change & energy efficiency – they invest in firms which will thrive through providing solutions which will mitigate climate change and also help in adapting to the consequences of climate change. These range from companies developing renewable energy technologies to building insulation manufacturers.
- Resilience – companies that have leading environmental and social management. It also includes company leaders in their sectors which are set to benefit from their proactive management of issues and companies that help others manage their business risks, such as auditors of supply chains, which ensure child labour is not used.
We welcome these additions to the fund range as Sustainable Future funds feature in most of our clients’ portfolios.
