Covalence provides investors and asset managers with investment solutions, Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings, ESG news data, portfolio advisory, and impact stories, supporting sustainable and responsible investment, ESG investing and impact investing strategies. We’re also involved in executive education for finance professionals.
Covalence SA, a specialist in ESG ratings and research, and Sussland & Co SA, a Geneva-based wealth manager, joined their forces to offer the ZKB Tracker Certificate Dynamic on Sustainable Swiss Small and Mid-Caps in partnership with Zürcher Kantonalbank.
The product has as objective to provide investors with a highly diversified portfolio of shares of Swiss small and mid-cap companies that have demonstrated through their acts their commitment to the ESG mindset as well as the ability to generate a positive impact on communities.
The investment universe includes companies with market capitalisation between CHF 500 million et 20 billion, and registering an above average ESG rating, which represents approx. 80 companies.
As of 31 October 2020, the performance of the certificate since it was issued on 17 September 2019 is 3.68% (vs 2.12% for SPI Extra), showing an outperformance of 1.56%.
Co-managed by the PeaceNexus Foundation and Covalence, the Peacebuilding Business Index ranks the 300 economically most impactful companies in fragile countries according to their contribution to peace and stability.
This index is used to define the investment universe of the Cadmos Peace Investment Fund, a thematic fund selecting global companies operating in fragile countries that demonstrate a high degree of conflict-sensitivity and sustainability in their operations, factors which we believe indicate their resilience and ability to innovate in complex settings.
This global equity fund with a portfolio of 30-40 listed, multinational companies is the first investment fund focusing on peace (SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions).
This innovation is a joint venture of Geneva-based PeaceNexus Foundation (founded by Anne Gloor with support from entrepreneur and philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss), Covalence SA (ESG ratings), and wealth manager de Pury, Pictet, Turrettini SA (PPT). They are supported by NexusVesting and BHP – Brugger & Partners. This long term partnership has developed an assessment methodology and an engagement strategy to understand and enhance the peacebuilding potential of companies.
The Peacebuilding Business Index has also triggered interest from organisations such as Responsible Investor, the UN Global Compact, World Economic Forum, Peace News Network, Strategic Foresight Group, Oxfam Novib and SOMO, The Graduate Institute, and SwissFoundations.
Peacebuilding Business Index |
Cadmos Peace Investment Fund |
Thanks to its multi-source, AI-powered scoring system Covalence rates more than 9000 companies on their ESG practices. For investment managers, we also offer data on sectoral exclusions (controversial weapons, tobacco, etc.).
Our ESG ratings can be used for risk management, factor investing, positive and negative screening, ESG integration, and thematic investment.
This data is available in monthly-updated ESG ratings as well as in various other formats.
Relying on strong in-house expertise we monitor ESG news on a continuous basis, both positive news (illustrating companies’ sustainability credentials) and negative news (reflecting controversies and the issues they are facing). The data informs on ESG practices (GRI-inspired criteria), impact (SDGs) and materiality (SASB), providing signals relevant to quant trading and equity factor investing.
The news feed is available on our interactive data visualization platform. Data feeds can also be delivered via FTP, email or API in various formats (.xlsx, csv, json). Finally, users can receive email alerts to be informed of breaking news and recent developments.
Our ESG news monitoring process relies on an in-house web scraper and crawler, on automated extraction techniques, on an algorithm and database, machine learning, sentiment analysis, Natural Language Processing (NLP), as well as on human analysis.
Today, the Covalence database includes more than one million documents from over 50’000 different sources on 6000 companies that have been classified and curated by more than 600 analysts in collaboration with over 30 universities.
Relying on 20 years of experience in sustainability analysis and on a robust ESG scoring system, we design meaningful investment products in terms of markets, geographies, themes, scope, ESG approaches (positive and negative screening, integration, engagement), and rating philosophies (best-in-universe, best-in-class, best effort).
We assist asset owners and asset managers with portfolio construction, product development, mission-aligned investments, and more broadly, investment strategy-setting.
Our dynamic, granular, news-based data informs on ESG practices (GRI-inspired criteria), impact (SDGs) and materiality (SASB), providing signals relevant to factor investing. This data also supports thematic investment strategies such as the Cadmos Peace Investment Fund.
Investors in sustainable and responsible strategies want to know what investee companies are doing for society and for the environment, how they contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. They want stories of positive impact and examples of good practice to be assured that their investment is making a difference.
For investment managers, Covalence documents portfolios with impact stories, supporting their investment decisions as well as their marketing, SDG reporting and engagement efforts.
If you would like to reinforce the storytelling of your sustainable and responsible investment strategies, we can help by carefully selecting impact stories and positive examples of corporate actions.
Relying on 20 years of experience in sustainability analysis and on a robust ESG news monitoring tool, our team screens large quantities of information, selects the most relevant and performs editorial work to highlight the best impact stories.
Co-managed by Covalence’s Antoine Mach, the CAS Sustainable Finance offered by Haute école de gestion de Genève received the prize for Best Pedagogical Innovation at the FIR-PRI Finance & Sustainability Awards 2019.
Designed by professionals for professionals, this programme is mainly organized through online teaching in English. Seasoned sustainable finance experts from the financial, banking, international organisations and academic domains have contributed to this CAS. A final week in Geneva is devoted to networking, live presentations, discussions and visits at expert organisations, enabling participants to dive into the rich local sustainability ecosystem.
“Comment investir dans des valeurs suisses respectant les préceptes du développement durable tout en gagnant de l’argent? La société genevoise Vandaalen & Cie s’est associée à Covalence pour proposer un produit très réactif.” Source: Bilan.
“The Fund only invests in companies that have a net positive impact according to the Peacebuilding Business Index co-developed by PeaceNexus and Covalence. This ranks the 300 most economically-impactful listed companies in 76 fragile states according to peacebuilding criteria which extend beyond standard environmental, social and governance criteria.” Source: PeaceNexus.
Les Objectifs de développement durables sont une chance pour les entreprises suisses
Les Objectifs de développement durable (ODD) constituent un ambitieux plan d’action pour la communauté internationale. Une nouveauté par rapport aux précédents Objectifs du Millénaire est l’importance accordée au rôle du secteur privé. Source: Covalence / Le Temps.
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