Victoria Leggett
Head of Impact Development
Shaping tomorrow through investments
We aim to deliver risk-adjusted returns over the long term and positive impact through innovative companies at the forefront of sustainable growth.
Impact investing seeks to generate measurable social and environmental benefits alongside competitive financial returns. By allocating capital to companies providing solutions to the world's most pressing challenges, impact investors aim to create positive change while growing their assets. UBP's impact strategies focus on identifying innovative businesses positioned to benefit from the powerful combination of shifting regulations, disruptive technologies, and evolving consumer demands. This distinctive approach uncovers compelling opportunities for long-term value creation, both financial and non-financial, while contributing to a more sustainable future.
The economic opportunity of impact investing
Connecting the drivers of sustainable growth
At UBP, we believe companies addressing today's most critical problems are poised to deliver superior investment returns alongside positive societal outcomes. Our impact portfolios are built around businesses with key characteristics: they are innovative solution providers, often in traditional sectors, whose products and services enable the broader economy to meet environmental and social challenges.
While our strategies have an inherent growth bias, the drivers of this growth are distinct from those in conventional portfolios. We see three fundamental pillars supporting the long-term trajectories of our strategies:
- Innovation: We seek out companies that are at the cutting edge of sustainable technologies and practices, which gives them a competitive edge and the potential to disrupt markets.
- Regulatory shifts: Tightening regulations around issues like carbon emissions and resource efficiency creates tailwinds for firms providing sustainability solutions.
- Consumer demand: Evolving preferences for environmentally and socially responsible products and services drive demand for impact-oriented companies' outputs.
By focusing on these secular trends we aim to identify opportunities for superior growth that are less dependent on short-term economic cycles. As a result, our impact strategies are well-positioned to perform over the long run while generating positive change.
Our strategic investment approach
Our impact investing strategies are underpinned by a robust and differentiated approach
Our dedicated Impact Investment team brings together professionals with diverse thematic and geographic expertise, maximising our capacity for idea generation. The platform is overseen by the Impact Investment Committee, which meets twice per quarter, and the independent Impact Advisory Board, which meets three times a year.
Informed by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), our thematic framework distills 15 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into six investable themes. This allows us to focus our efforts on the areas where we believe listed equities can have the most significant impact.
Our proprietary Intentionality, Materiality, Additionality, and Potential (IMAP) model puts impact assessment at the heart of our company research. This rigorous framework evaluates a company's current impact and future potential, ensuring that we invest only in businesses making a genuine and meaningful difference.
For us, engagement isn't just part of the process; it's at the very core of what we do. We don't rely on questionnaires or separate teams. Instead, our portfolio managers and analysts engage in ongoing dialogue with companies. This hands-on approach gives us unique insights and allows us to drive positive change.
Our engagement takes several forms:
- Systematic engagement through our Impact Engagement Framework
- Targeted, issue-specific engagements to address challenges
- Participation in collaborative investor initiatives and working groups
It fosters cooperation between the private, public and non-profit sectors as part of a deep commitment to multi-stakeholder collaboration to nurture systems change. By combining deep fundamental research, active ownership, and a partnership approach, we seek to deliver compelling financial returns and measurable real-world impact for our clients.
Ready to invest in a brighter tomorrow?
Contact our impact investing specialists to learn how our strategies can help you pursue your financial and sustainability goals.
Distinctive strategies for a range of investor needs
Our suite of impact investing strategies includes:
Our impact strategies
- Embrace an all-cap approach, harnessing the full spectrum of investment opportunities.
- Maintain an active share above 90%, demonstrating a genuine commitment to high-conviction stock selection. This approach aims to deliver superior long-term performance driven by the three key growth pillars: innovation, regulatory shifts, and evolving consumer demands.
- Help safeguard investors by reducing exposure to potentially stranded assets and avoiding problematic industries.
- This results in concentrated portfolios with low turnover and a long-term investment horizon. The impact is most powerful when supported by committed, patient capital.
Awards
Best ESG Investment Fund: Natural Capital (ESG Investing Awards, 2024)*
* Past performance is not a guide for current or future results.
"Laying the foundations for a secure, stable and prosperous world needs the public and private sector to work together. That is where UBP's impact strategies come in, helping direct capital to forward-looking investments that will bring not only returns now but also dividends for future generations."
Investor Insights
Frequently asked questions about impact investing.
The topics of biodiversity restoration and climate change mitigation are closely interconnected. There is some overlap between the two, but it is a non-reciprocal relationship: what we do to protect biodiversity (e.g. conservation laws and protection of species) tends to be positive for climate change, but the opposite is not always true.
- It offers unique secular growth drivers anchored in innovation, regulatory shifts, and consumer demand.
- It reduces the risk of ending up with stranded assets.
- It simultaneously serves as a go-to option in global equity markets and provides an optimal solution to blend with any global fund or ETF.
Country risk is a key factor in emerging markets, but while we consider it in stock-picking, we prioritise maintaining a geographically diversified portfolio. On a day-to-day basis, we integrate macro elements into our financial assessments of companies. At portfolio level, we evaluate macro conditions in the markets we invest in and limit our exposure when we see risks.
Meet the team
The experienced Impact Investment team leverages its diverse geographic and thematic expertise to identify the most compelling impact opportunities worldwide. Each team member contributes to all UBP impact strategies as a portfolio manager, analyst, or idea generator. With a presence in developed and emerging markets, the team is optimally positioned to advance the UN SDGs through a solutions-oriented approach.
Key facts and figures
- Over 200 years of combined experience
- All strategies classified as Article 9 under SFDR
- Typical holding period of 3–5 years, reflecting long-term orientation
Your contacts
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Mathieu Nègre
Head of Impact Investing
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Yvan Delaplace
Senior Investment Specialist & Fund Analyst
18.12.2024
Building Bridges battles sustainable finance headwinds
From 9–12 December, Building Bridges attracted over 3,000 professionals from banks, insurance companies, big corporations, governments, international organisations, NGOs and academia for more than 70 plenary sessions, discussions, and workshops. Combined with over 6,000 viewers online, attendance at the 2024 edition of Switzerland’s leading sustainable finance event reached a record high.
10.12.2024
From regulation to innovation: the dynamic universe of biodiversity investments
In the three years since the launch of our biodiversity strategy, the investment landscape has undergone significant transformations, particularly in the realm of biodiversity and nature finance.
18.11.2024
COP29: will AI be mentioned in the final text?
Artificial intelligence has been discussed at previous climate conferences: as early as 2021 in Glasgow, there were discussions about both the benefits of AI, and the probable need for additional resources to power it.
18.10.2024
Biodiversity COP16: Turning the talk into the walk
Ahead of COP16, the UBP Biodiversity Committee met in the David Attenborough Building in Cambridge to discuss expectations of the event with their two partner organisations, the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) and the Peace Parks Foundation.
10.09.2024
Nature-positive: a game-changer for economies and societies
We explore the importance of nature in our economies and societies – the concept of 'nature-positive', and how businesses can contribute to this global societal goal – in our interview with Dr Noëlle Kümpel, Senior Advisor at BirdLife International.
04.09.2024
Measuring biodiversity net gain
As part of its partnership with Peace Parks Foundation, UBP is guided by their expertise in biodiversity measurement and applies this knowledge when engaging with the corporate sector. The aim is to help companies learn from the conservation specialists and disclose more accurate data on nature.
28.08.2024
Summer wellness programme at UBP Hong Kong
Our CSR Team in Hong Kong organised a “Summer of Wellness” programme for colleagues – an initiative that demonstrates UBP's commitment to fostering a culture of health and well-being, not only within the organisation but also in the local community.
25.08.2024
The cost of transition: what are the implications of tariffs?
In a bid to preserve their own industries and reduce their dependency on China, the US and EU recently raised trade barriers against Chinese companies, sparking concerns about the cost and pace of the West’s energy transition. The debate is complex, and environmental and social externalities are a crucial part of it.
12.07.2024
Sustainability: an increasingly important consideration for wealth management
In early 2023, Nicolas Barben was appointed UBP’s Group Head of ESG Solutions within the Wealth Management division. We spoke to him about the role of regulation, the evolution of client interest in sustainability, and the performance of sustainable solutions, as well as his top priorities.
Glossary
Impact investing is an investment made with the intention of generating a positive social and/or environmental impact alongside financial returns. It exists across a diverse range of asset classes and geographies. Underlying investment candidates should demonstrate a clear “intentionality” within their business model.
Biodiversity is the variety of life on earth at all levels, from genes to ecosystems, plants and animals.
- About 25% of our assessed plant and animal species are threatened by human actions, with a million species facing extinction within a matter of decades.
- Pollination, water quality, and disease control are three examples of the services an ecosystem can provide.
Biodiversity is an essential part of natural capital and is directly or indirectly linked to other forms of capital in our economic system. USD 44 trillion of economic value generated each year is moderately or highly dependent on nature, which is more than 50% of global GDP, according to a World Economic Forum report.*
*World Economic Forum, New Nature Economy Report Series, 14 July 2020.
ESG (environmental, social and governance) is a term which outlines the key non-financial considerations investors can integrate into their investment process.
- Environmental: climate change, resource use, waste management, pollution
- Social: working conditions, employee relations, community involvement
- Governance: remuneration levels, board diversity, corporate structure, tax strategy
The incorporation of these factors is argued to be of key importance both for highlighting opportunities and for avoiding unnecessary risk. Therefore, ESG is an integral part of a responsible investment strategy and a tool for potentially enhancing long-term value.
Responsible investment is evolving from an investment niche to an established, mainstream approach. It has seen substantial growth in recent years due to increasing interest from both institutional and individual investors. Globally, total assets committed to sustainable and responsible investment strategies have grown significantly faster than the market (+25% between 2014 and 2016) and now represent 26% of professionally managed assets.