London, UK – 23 July 2021 – Rize UCITS ICAV (“Rize ETF”), Europe’s first specialist thematic ETF issuer, has today unveiled a brand new ETF targeting environmental sustainability. The Rize Environmental Impact 100 UCITS ETF (LIFE) is the first ETF of its kind in Europe, and is available to buy from today on London Stock Exchange trading under the tickers LIFE (USD) and LVNG (GBP). In addition to London Stock Exchange, the fund will also be listed on the Deutsche Börse Xetra, Borsa Italiana and the SIX Swiss Exchange.
The fund is classified as an Article 9 fund under SFDR and carries an OCF of 0.55%.
The new launch brings Rize ETF’s total ETF count to five, complementing existing thematic offerings on Sustainable Future of Food (FOOD/FOGB), Cybersecurity and Data Privacy (CYBR/CYBP), Medical Cannabis and Life Sciences (FLWR/FLWG) and Education Tech and Digital Learning (LERN/LERP).
Rize Environmental Impact 100 UCITS ETF – Europe’s first environmental impact ETF
The LIFE fund is designed to provide investors with exposure to the top 100 most impactful companies developing and applying innovative solutions to tackle the world’s most pressing climatic and environmental challenges. These include companies involved in clean water, EVs, renewables and hydrogen, energy efficiency and waste, plus those working towards the circular economy and nature-based solutions holding the promise of a greener future.
LIFE is purpose-built in partnership with Sustainable Market Strategies (“SMS”), an independent specialist in sustainable investing, ESG intelligence and climate policy. The SMS team is comprised of a world-class team of experts across capital markets, sustainable investing, economics, public policy and academic research. The SMS team also includes Chief Sustaniability Officer and senior partner, Félix A. Boudreault, the former Director of International Climate Change Negotiation at Environment and Climate Change Canada (a department of the Government of Canada) who led Canada’s negotiating team in the lead up to the Paris Agreement in 2013 and 2014.
Rize ETF and SMS entered into a strategic partnership in late 2020 to design and implement one of the world’s first environmentally-focused impact investment strategies aligned to the six environmental objectives set out in the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities (“EU Taxonomy”). The EU Taxonomy forms a critical part of the European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, more commonly referred to as the SFDR.
From this ambition, LIFE was born. As part of its investment framework, LIFE employs a proprietary classification methodology that seeks to deconstruct the six environmental objectives into a series of “high impact” investment sub-sectors that the fund invests in. The sub-sector taxonomy is fluid and built to be dynamic over time as the European Commission incrementally builds out their complete EU Taxonomy and unveils the rest of the broader SFDR regulatory framework.
Foxberry Limited (“Foxberry”) has been engaged to administer the index replicated by the ETF.
Rahul Bhushan, Co-Founder of Rize ETF explains: “What we have created here in partnership with SMS is an investment strategy and ETF that is purpose-built for taxonomy-aligned portfolios. As allocators of capital, we have the choice today to align ourselves with public policy objectives. The EU Taxonomy is incredibly thorough, and provides investors and companies with definitions around the type of economic activities that should be considered environmentally sustainable. We believe this is a hugely constructive and positive first step for the asset management industry as we try to phase out greenwashing and vacuous value-signalling. Crucially it also offers much greater clarity to companies as they seek to make their own green transition. LIFE is a simple and transparent way for investors to align themselves to the six environmental objectives set out in the EU Taxonomy with the knowledge that their is being used to back the technologies and solutions that will pave the way to a greener future.“
Stuart Forbes, Co-Founder of Rize ETF adds: “Our planet is under threat like never before. Temperatures are rising, rainfall patterns are shifting and sea ice cover is retreating. Oceans are acidifying, soils are degrading and droughts and floods are now commonplace. Exploitation and degradation of Earth’s remaining natural resources, habitats and biodiversity continues. We need to take collective action now. That requires us to put our hands into our pockets and vote with our capital. The Rize Environmental Impact 100 UCITS ETF is designed to give investors exposure to the top 100 most impactful companies in the environmental universe while also providing them the comfort that their capital is being geared towards maximising environmental sustainability in each of our relevant sub-sectors.”
Félix A. Boudreault, Chief Sustainability Officer at Sustainable Market Strategies comments: “We are very pleased to be working with Rize ETF to bring our extensive experience in environmental public policy and sustainable investment research to bear in this ground-breaking initiative in Europe. With the proliferation of greenwashing that unfortunately pervades our industry, we were together determined to develop a robust investible solution that cut through the noise. We have created an ETF that does not just focus on carbon avoidance, or carbon mitigation, but one which seeks to identify the companies that are leaders and innovators in their respective environmental sub-sectors as per the EU Taxonomy. We are investing across the most cutting-edge technologies and solutions across clean water, EVs, renewables and hydrogen, energy efficiency, waste and the circular economy and nature-based solutions. We are excited about the strategy and look forward to having conversations with European investors.“
About Rize ETF: RIZE ETF IS EUROPE’S FIRST SPECIALIST THEMATIC ETF ISSUER
Rize ETF launched its first two funds in February 2020 – the Rize Cybersecurity and Data Privacy UCITS ETF and the Rize Medical Cannabis and Life Sciences UCITS ETF. These launches were followed by two further launches in September 2020 – the Rize Sustainable Future of Food UCITS ETF and the Rize Education Tech and Digital Learning UCITS ETF, both of which were first of their kind in Europe.
In little over a year, Rize ETF’s AUM has risen to over $450 million. Co-founders and directors Rahul Bhushan, Stuart Forbes, Anthony Martin and Jason Kennard believe in offering investors access to long-term secular trends that both resonate with investors’ long-term convictions and align with their personal values and belief systems.
The Rize ETF business was created in 2019 by early thematic ETF pioneers Rahul Bhushan, Stuart Forbes, Anthony Martin and Jason Kennard with the first ETFs launching in 2020. The group is a proven team of ETF experts and has over 40 years of combined ETF experience. The team specialises in creating high quality, research-led and purpose-built thematic ETFs that leverage the insights and expertise of the best, most credible external experts in each theme.
Rize ETF’s collection of ETFs appeal to a new generation of investors with global perspectives and a less siloed approach to investing. The team’s exclusive focus on thematic ETFs allows them to launch timely and tailor-made products that can stand the test of time.
For further information, please visit: https://rizeetf.com
Further information on Sustainable Market Strategies (SMS) and LIFE:
SMS is an independent specialist in sustainable investing, ESG intelligence and climate policy based in Montreal, Canada (and in the process of opening a branch office in Geneva, Switzerland). The SMS team is comprised of a world-class team of experts across capital markets, sustainable investing, economics, public policy and academic research.
The six environmental objectives set out in the EU Taxonomy which LIFE is aligned to are:
(1) Climate Change Mitigation
(2) Climate Change Adaptation
(3) The Sustainable Use and Protection of Water and Marine Resources
(4) The Transition to A Circular Economy
(5) Pollution Prevention and Control
(6) The Protection and Restoration of Biodiversity and Ecosystems
Further enquiries:
Cornerstone Communicate: Richard Acworth/Esther Armstrong/Ben Larter: Tel: 07917 080 365 or 07982 624 530 or 07825 880 830 richard@cornerstonecomms.co.uk / esther.armstrong@cornerstonecomms.co.uk / ben@cornerstonecomms.co.uk