Fund managers can use the Carbon Footprint to:

Calculate the carbon performance of each company in your portfolio, expressed in financial terms
Compare your fund's carbon costs relative to its benchmark
Identify the largest contributors to your fund's carbon costs by company and sector
Report the changes in the fund's environmental footprint to your clients over time

Carbon emissions are increasingly resulting in financial costs for companies. How carbon intensive are the companies in your portfolio and how much will it cost them to control their carbon emissions? Asset managers increasingly need to identify, manage and report on the carbon costs in their investment portfolios and a growing number of leading financial institutions are using Trucost analysis of their portfolios to help improve performance. These include European Credit Management, Henderson Global Investors, Hermes Pension Fund Management, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, Societe Generale Asset Management and Standard Life Investments.

This information can then be reported to pension fund clients and trustees who "want to ensure that these risks (and associated opportunities) are being addressed in relation to the funds in their care." A climate for change - A trustee's guide to understanding and addressing climate risk, Mercer Investment Consulting, August 2005.

"The interest being shown in Trucost's research helps to show the speed at which the climate change debate is moving." Jane Ambachtsheer, Mercer Investment Consulting.

Trucost has released its annual Carbon
Footprint Ranking of UK Investment funds, enabling
investors to compare investment funds
on an environmental basis.


The study demonstrates that it is possible to reduce fund exposure to future carbon liabilities without affecting returns..