12th July 2005 - Trucost expertise helps Financial Service Companies manage environmental risks

Trucost provides advice to many financial service companies on climate change and other environmental issues, most recently Legal and General, Prudential, Henderson Global Investors and Standard Life as well as a number of leading institutional investment houses.  Environmental issues are of relevance for two reasons:

Financial service companies with public listings must now include information about the environmental impacts that are material to their business as part of their Operating and Financial Review (OFR)

Financial service companies must protect their capital investments from financial risks, which are increasingly associated with the environmental impacts of companies in which assets are held.

Rosemary Radcliffe CBE, Chairman, OFR Independent Working Group, says: "Trucost has a well established and robust process which can help boards of directors decide which of their businesses' environmental impacts should be disclosed in their OFR."

Trucost provides guidance to companies to help them report on relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) relating to their environmental impacts. These are ranked in order of significance and allow comparisons against chosen peers. Please click here for more information.

Trucost can also calculate the environmental footprint of assets or a portfolio, which enables more informed investment decisions. Please click here for more information.

David Pitt-Watson, Chief Executive, Hermes Focus Asset Management Ltd recently said:  "Trucost's ability to dig out the data about the environmental consequences of production is absolutely second to none anywhere in the globe."

Recent Examples of Trucost's work for financial service companies:

Prudential Plc - Corporate Responsibility Report 2004 - Key Performance Indicator Analysis: Trucost reviewed Prudential's current reporting for materiality in light of the new OFR regulations. The project also included an analysis of their peer group and an assessment of their business travel.         

Legal & General Group Plc - Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2004 - Benchmarking: Trucost performed a gap analysis of Legal and General's current reporting, against their peer group. This included a high-level analysis of their supply chain environmental impacts and a workshop session to brief senior management.

Henderson Global Investors - How Green is My Portfolio? Trucost conducted a carbon audit of Henderson's Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) funds. The study shows that Henderson's Global Care Income fund is 32% less carbon intensive than its benchmark, the FTSE All Share index.

Click here to view the report.

Standard Life - Environmental footprint analysis: Trucost conducted an environmental footprint for a UK equity portfolio for one of Standard Life Investment's local government pension scheme clients. The fund's environmental impacts were analysed by company and sector, and compared with those of its benchmark, the FTSE 350