Investors demand carbon footprint information
Retail investors are requesting more information on the carbon footprint of their investments, according to new research from Kana Earth.
Kana Earth, which will launch an open ledger and investment platform for the carbon offsetting market this year, found that 60 per cent of UK retail investors would like to know the carbon footprint of their investments.
Just 22 per cent of investors say they know this information for their stock market related investments. Some 69 per cent want to see their fund managers provide carbon footprint information on their funds.
So far, of those who do receive information, 36 per cent and 37 per cent describe the quality as either excellent or good, respectively. Only 28 per cent said it was average or poor.
Although Kana Earth’s research was related to stock market investments, many investors have been demanding to know more about the green credentials of their investments overall, including peer-to-peer lending.
In an effort to meet such demand, several P2P lending platforms have made moves in recent years. Relendex, for example, is targeting 60 per cent of its new loans to be for sustainable development by the end of next year. Several P2P property lenders have also introduced a series of policies to offset the impact of their development projects.
“Fund managers are coming under increasing pressure from investors to disclose the carbon footprint of their funds, and also what they are doing to manage this,” said Andy Creak, chief executive and co-founder of Kana Earth. “Those that don’t take this issue seriously run the risk of losing investors to fund managers who do.”
Read more: Over half of P2P investors consider ESG when investing in the sector