Zug, Switzerland. – April 8, 2009 – ASSET4 AG, the leading provider of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) information, today announced that it has released its ASSET4 Carbon Data & Estimates product, which is a standalone product based on three transparent models designed to estimate total CO2 emissions for reporting and non-reporting companies.
In 2007 one third of the companies in the ASSET4 universe, which includes the MSCI World Index, reported on their total CO2 emissions. Click here to download a graph illustrating the level of reporting by sector. In addition, only a relatively small number of companies have already reported their 2008 emissions. With the ASSET4 Carbon Data & Estimates, users can now identify the carbon leaders and laggards of their portfolio and their risk profile sooner rather than later.
“Monitoring total CO2 emissions has become an essential element in analysing a company’s potential liabilities, performance and risk due to the cap-and-trade policies and carbon taxes in place and being proposed,” said Peter Ohnemus, ASSET4 CEO and President. “However, the timeliness and completeness of reporting on total CO2 emissions varies from sector to sector, industry to industry and even company to company. The ASSET4 Carbon Data & Estimates gives users access to the actual reported CO2 emissions values from the ASSET4 database, as well as estimates to fill in the gaps where needed. One clear differentiator of our estimates is that in keeping with ASSET4’s commitment to transparency, we make detailed descriptions of each estimate model available to users, so they can understand our approach. As carbon grows in importance, I believe that having access to the most accurate carbon data whether reported or estimated will become a must-have for all investors, not just investors interested in sustainability or responsible investing.”
The models work with historical carbon and energy data normalised by number of employees and revenue and are based on ASSET4’s industry-leading extra-financial database covering over 2,500 global companies.
There are three types of models:
- CO2 model
- Energy model
- Median model
The CO2 model works with a company’s own latest reported CO2 data, if there is any from the previous two years and extrapolates carbon emissions for the year in question based on the development of company activities. The Energy model works with a company’s total energy consumed, if reported and uses that to compare it with companies within the same industry or sector. The Median model computes the CO2 / number of employees ratio for all companies within a company’s industry and then uses the median value as the estimate.
The ASSET4 Carbon Data & Estimates product is purchased with an annual subscription rate, which includes monthly updates, ensuring that users have the most up-to-date information available.
ASSET4
ASSET4 is the leading provider of objective, comparable and auditable extra-financial information. We provide professional investors and corporate executives access to the world’s largest database of ESG information and the analysis tools to integrate that information into their everyday decision making. ASSET4 has 220 employees and is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland with locations in London, New York, Paris, Frankfurt, Mauritius and India. ASSET4 is a proud signatory of the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment and a contributing member to organisations and initiatives like: UNEP-FI, Eurosif, UKSIF, USSIF, Nachhaltiges Investment and the Ceres Coalition in the US. For more information, please visit www.asset4.com.
