Global sustainability solutions provider South Pole Group and Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. ("ISS"), leading provider of end-to-end corporate governance and responsible investment solutions to the financial community, have agreed on the sale of South Pole Group's investment climate data advisory unit to ISS.
As pioneers in the development of climate-smart industry solutions, South Pole Group developed its investment climate data advisory unit - also known as Climate Neutral Investments (CNI) - in 2010 as a premier offer for screening carbon emissions in investment portfolios.
What started as a novelty for the financial industry soon caught the attention of large investors globally: CNI established the world's largest database on corporate climate change data and pioneered the leading, standardised investment carbon emission screening tools, resulting in the successful screening of over USD 2 trillion of assets under management for climate change implications.
"For our company, this is certainly a historic milestone. From incubating the completely unknown space of investment carbon footprinting back in 2010, to growing the business and co-shaping our own market to now finally selling the investment carbon footprinting business to a large financial industry player - it has been an absolutely amazing journey," says Renat Heuberger, CEO of South Pole Group.
The sale of CNI will allow South Pole Group to significantly scale its global sustainability business, which comprises the full suite of environmental risk and performance assessment - including climate change, energy, water, land use and deforestation. The company will continue to be one of the world's largest sustainability project developers and a global provider of renewable energy and carbon credits, creating value for its wide range of public, private and civil society clients.
"As part of ISS, we will be able to further scale our data and analytics work on climate change related risks and impact. Our clients and the climate will benefit tremendously: We will widen and deepen our offering across all asset classes and make it available to all investors, companies, governments and researchers around the globe," says Maximilian Horster, Founder of CNI, and now Managing Director at ISS Ethix Climate Change Advisory.
