WHEB's approach is simple: we only make investments that aim to generate positive impact
Just like our investors, we believe that investing in and supporting businesses that have a positive impact on people and the planet can help bring about a zero-carbon and more sustainable economy.
We believe that positive impact businesses are those with products and services that provide the solutions to environmental or social challenges.
It’s also our belief that as the global economy transitions to become zero-carbon and more sustainable, businesses generating a positive impact will access faster-growth markets and gain a long-term competitive advantage.
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Sustainable growth
We focus on nine sustainable investment themes with strong growth characteristics, derived from providing solutions to major social and environmental challenges. -
Quality
Individual stocks are selected through a ‘bottom-up’ stock-by-stock fundamental and rigorous research process to identify high quality companies. -
Valuation
We are disciplined about valuation and have a longer-term investment approach.
Our nine sustainable investment themes
WHEB’s guiding principle is that the success of each of our portfolio companies is driven by the success of the sustainability solution it provides.
If every unit of product sold helps to make the world a bit healthier, a bit safer, a bit greener then, 'the sustainability story becomes the equity story’.
We've established nine investment themes on which to focus when we invest for impact. They include four social themes (Education, Health, Safety and Well-being) and five environmental themes (Cleaner Energy, Environmental Services, Resource Efficiency, Water Management and Sustainable Transport).
The fundamentals of sustainability investing
The 'what' and the 'how'
WHEB’s Fundamental Quality Analysis complements our thematic focus by providing a ‘bottom-up’ approach to selecting companies for investment. Our rigourous process uses bespoke tools that our experts have developed to zero in on the businesses that offer the most attractive blend of impact and financial return for a reasonable level of risk.
These tools help us delve into both ‘what’ a company does and ‘how’ it operates.
The ‘what’ – WHEB’s bespoke ‘Impact Engine’ helps the investment team assess the intensity of the positive impact generated by a company’s products and services.
The ‘how’ – WHEB’s Fundamental Quality Analysis considers a range of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, together with strategic, business model and financial analysis.
Our interactive Impact Map shows how these tools are applied to WHEB's sustainability strategy and plots the positive impact associated at the aggregate portfolio-level as well as for each individual stock.
Our radical transparency is what makes us different
WHEB’s impact measurement and reporting is considered market-leading.
Our commitment to providing you with radical transparency across all our activities sets us apart from the rest of the industry. We want you to have confidence that we'll remain focused on sustainability and be consistent in our style, philosophy and the promise we've made to you.
We're transparent about what we invest in and why, as well as the impact associated with our investments.
Why is this so important? In addition to guarding against 'greenwashing', transparent reporting also contributes to WHEB’s ambition to support the development of impact investing. By ‘signalling’ our company investments, we aim to profile them as highly impactful businesses.
We also engage with regulators, policy-makers and standard setters to support the development of strong standards for impact investing.
Stewardship and engagement
As investors, WHEB has the opportunity – and the responsibility – to advocate for progressive change at the companies we invest in.
Well-run companies consider the interests of their key stakeholders in their decision making. These are simply better managed businesses that we expect to generate superior risk-adjusted returns over the medium to long-term.
With a holding period of 4 - 7 years, our view is inherently long-term and well above industry averages. This enables us to act as stakeholders in our portfolio companies, rather than short-term traders.
Engagement with portfolio companies and the broader financial system, as well as voting at company AGMs, are central to how we fulfil our stewardship responsibilities.
Our portfolio
We’re passionate about nine critical social and environmental problems confronting society.
Through our investment strategy, we've identified around 430 companies that provide the solutions to sustainability challenges.
From this wider universe of companies, our specialist investment team selects a portfolio of companies that are best-placed to provide competitive investment returns for our investors, by providing solutions to these problems.
