Portland, Maine-based IW Financial is making it easier for asset managers and investors to access its sustainability research and is tripling the number of companies that it evaluates.
The research is now available to investors and asset managers as a data feed or on the IWF Workstation platform, the firm announced today. The research, which incorporates more than 1,000 data points into coverage of eight major issue categories, was previously available exclusively through IW Financial's consulting group.
IW Financial sustainability research currently covers more than 1,000 publicly traded U.S. companies and will grow to 3,000 by the end of the year. Among the eight issue categories included are climate change, environmental performance, environmental management, workforce and human rights, with each category supported by research on multiple data points. Among the environmentally focused data points are a measurement of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and GHG emissions by revenue; a calculation of total energy use and energy use by revenue; and a characterization of a company's overall climate change policy.
"We analyze a company's sustainability in a values-neutral way, focusing on disclosure, policy, and performance. The results data allows asset managers to compare the performance of individual companies to a benchmark or to their peers, and to invest accordingly," said Mark Bateman, IW Financial's director of research. "This set of data really demonstrates which companies are-and which companies aren't-pursuing sustainability."
Investors increasingly see sustainability as an important consideration, according to David Myers, Director of the Financial Services Laboratory at Lehigh University. "There is a growing body of research that points to the materiality of these factors," Myers said. "As more data is collected, I suspect that we'll be finding more relationships between these issues and shareholder value."
IW Financial is a leading provider of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) research, consulting and portfolio management solutions for asset management firms, managed accounts sponsors, institutional investors, plan sponsors and investment advisors. For more information, visit www.iwfinancial.com.