Indexes with a focus on biodiversity were launched by S&P Dow Jones Indices Feb. 27 to help investors integrate more sustainability factors.
That follows the January launch of one that measures how companies align with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, a spokeswoman said.
The two new indices, the S&P 500 Biodiversity Index and S&P Global LargeMidCap Biodiversity Index, measure the performance of a subset of equity securities in those indexes, with constituents selected and weighted to reflect their alignment with certain environmental and biodiversity objectives. The index provider said it assesses nature-related impacts and dependencies across a company's direct operations at the asset, company and portfolio level.
The biodiversity indexes integrate biodiversity, SDGs and carbon datasets aligned to targets defined by the U.N.'s biodiversity conference, COP15.
The new indices are designed to help offer additional insights for market participants wanting to measure, analyze and better understand their investments' impact on the natural world, Jas Duhra, global head of sustainability indices at S&P DJI, said in the announcement.
Steven Bullock, global head of research and methodology, said that 85% of the world's largest companies "have a significant dependency on nature and biodiversity," which makes the nature- and biodiversity-focused data and analytics useful.
