Learn more about our SRI activities.
Flow of investments
| Redirecting the flow of investments towards sustainable development Moving the global economy towards a more sustainable modus operandi needs clear sustainable objectives and, above all, huge investments in innovative and less resource-consuming technologies and services to meet our future needs. In this aim the asset management industry has the potential to be a major catalyst, since sustainability has become a legitimate investment choice for a growing number of private and institutional investors who take a long-term view. |
|
Two forms of sustainable investment
|
 We have expanded our sustainable investment franchise in an organic way, without acquisition, simply by meeting our commitments to clients. We believe that sustainable investment should be transparent, honest and coherent. By providing intelligent SRI investment products, we aim to serve our clients' investment preferences and not to force our convictions on them.At Pictet we have developed two forms of sustainable investment in order to meet this challenge. First, we have built a growing reputation in broadly diversified SRI portfolios. Second, we have taken a thematic approach, which focuses on themes and sectors with a strong sustainability element. Pictet Asset Management (the institutional division of Pictet & Cie) began looking at broadly diversified sustainable investment in 1997. Two years later we launched a Swiss Sustainable Equities fund, soon followed by the European Sustainable Equities fund. In December 2005, a strategic agreement with Ethos, the Swiss SRI foundation promoting SRI investment and corporate governance services, brought our SRI activities to a new level. We now manage over EUR1.7bn in SRI assets, including significant new appointments by two major French public institutions. As natural extensions of our expertise, we have recently gained mandates for SRI Balanced and for SRI Emerging Equities.
|
| |
 The Water and Clean Energy fundsAmong sector or theme products, the groundbreaking Water fund, launched in 2000, has become the world's largest of its kind, with over EUR4 bn in assets. Apart from this fund, we have recently launched a Clean Energy fund, while other sustainability-related products are under development. |
| |
| Water fund.......................................... | |
| Clean Energy fund............................... | |
| |||||||||||
|
Exclusionary and Controversy Screening
|
 Besides investing in a sustainable theme or choosing a fully-fledged SRI investment product, conventional portfolios may be modified with so-called negative filters. Such screens are designed to protect the investor from unwelcome reputational or ethical risk that might arise from the underlying investment strategy. For example, we employ a negative screen in our recently launched Security fund. While investors in the fund seek an exposure to the market for security, they may prefer to avoid investment in weapons manufacturers or other companies for ethical reasons. That is why the Security fund routinely applies exclusion criteria and filters for certain controversial activities. This special screening service is provided to us by SiRi Company, the global network of SRI research houses. |
| Security fund................................... | |
|
Research
|
|
We conduct and periodically publish fundamental research at the interface of sustainability and finance. Through our research we consciously go beyond the analysis of existing sustainable products and approaches, in order to address more fundamental issues and problems in the field of sustainable finance. |
