BNP Paribas Asset Management (BNPP AM) and Matter, a Danish fintech specialising in sustainability insights, have joined forces to launch SDG Fundamentals, a new data solution which enables investors to analyse the extent to which company revenues are aligned – or misaligned – with the targets of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Adopted in 2015 at COP 21, the UN SDGs were defined as a universal roadmap for achieving a sustainable and inclusive future by 2030. Since then the asset management industry has made significant progress in developing solutions to help address some of the global challenges articulated by the SDGs, using capital allocation and engagement as levers towards a sustainable future.
Prioritising investment in the SDGs has the potential to unlock opportunities worth approximately USD 12 trillion and 380 million jobs a year by 2030 for investors. Despite this, a funding gap remains between current investments in companies aligned to the SDGs and what is necessary to meet the 2030 targets set by them.
SDG Fundamentals, the new dataset developed by BNPP AM and Matter, helps bridge this gap by providing investors with a framework to understand the extent of the alignment of a company’s revenue streams with individual SDGs and targets, as well as across multiple SDGs and targets.
The product is based on a proprietary SDG taxonomy, itself grounded on a strict reading of UNStats SDG metadata, and uses one of the more granular revenue breakdown databases available.
SDG Fundamentals data covers more than 50,000 issuers, providing unparalleled insights into their alignment and misalignment with the SDGs through an analysis of their products and services.
“Understanding the extent to which companies’ core business revenues are aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals, and by extension have the potential to contribute to real-world sustainable outcomes, is the next frontier of sustainability analysis,” says Bérénice Lasfargues, Sustainability Integration Lead at BNPP AM.
She adds, “While this type of analysis continues to be hampered by a lack of granular and standardised corporate sustainability disclosures and data, our methodological work with Matter helps to break down this barrier and provides investors with actionable information on what constitutes company alignment to the targets underpinning the 17 SDG Goals.
It is also part of a wider push towards increased data breadth, quality and standards through industry collaboration. ”
©Markets Media Europe 2022
TOP OF PAGE
