Morningstar announced the launch of the Morningstar Global Sustainable Activities Involvement Indexes (SAI), a new suite of benchmarks designed to provide investors with exposure to companies whose revenues are aligned with specific UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across environmental and social themes.
This new series of nine equity indexes covers five environmental and social impact themes that align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To be included in the indexes, companies must pass stringent ESG screens and have a substantial proportion of their revenue aligned with one or more impact themes. As a result, index weightings are skewed towards companies with the highest proportion of revenue derived from SDG-aligned activities to increase exposure to impact themes.
The SAI Indexes are the latest addition to Morningstar’s expanding suite of sustainability data, research, and tools for global investors. Five indexes focusing on specific impact themes, including climate action, human development, resource security, healthy ecosystems, and basic needs, as well as three multi-impact indexes and a global aggregated impact theme index, are included in the new suite.
“In speaking with our global clients, we see sustainable investing evolving very quickly, beyond simply measuring ESG risk,” said Morningstar Indexes Head of ESG Strategy Thomas Kuh. “Investors are asking for more sophisticated tools to measure the impact that their assets are having on the environment and, more broadly, on society.”
“Building on investor’s fiduciary responsibilities, a credible and robust strategy for responsible investing includes both ESG risk and impact considerations,” said Vikram Puppala, Morningstar Sustainalytics’ Global Head of Product Strategy. “Investing in companies whose activities align with impact themes that matter to clients and contribute to the globally recognized UN SDGs can help to advance impact strategies. We are excited to launch this family of indexes and look forward to helping investors pursue a variety of impact-related objectives.”
Added Morningstar Indexes Global Head of ESG Product Rob Edwards, “We are actively developing our global index capabilities with a focus on impact and climate, working closely with our colleagues at Sustainalytics. Our new Sustainable Activities Involvement Indexes are an important step, and we will be introducing additional tools for investors in the coming months.”
