Stockholm (NordSIP) – A new fund focused on sustainability has been launched by investment engineers Robeco. The Robeco QI Global Sustainable Conservative Equities fund has as its objective to provide equity returns at lower risk by exploiting low-risk anomaly while offering a considerably better sustainability profile than the index provided by MSCI World All Country.

The fund is based on Robeco’s previously successful conservative equity strategy, and will be managed by the Rotterdam-based Robeco Conservative equities team with EUR 16.9 billion in AUM. The fund is aimed at institutional and retail investors interested in both low-volatility investing and sustainability.

“Ten years after the launch of our first conservative equity strategy, Robeco has developed a new offering that, while fully based on the philosophy and research of the original strategy, simultaneously offers clients a very strong sustainable profile,” says founder and Portfolio Manager Pim van Vliet, Ph.D. “The strategy will apply strict criteria based on high ethical standards, high ESG scores and a low environmental footprint.”

The strategy has been co-developed with RobecoSAM, the investment specialist focused exclusively on sustainability investing. Its previous credits include responsibility for factoring in “Smart ESG” scores that have reduced the environmental footprint of the portfolio by 20% (by comparison to the MSCI World All County index) and avoiding investment in companies with “controversial” business practices.

“Marrying the low-risk anomaly with ‘Smart ESG’ scores makes perfect sense,” says Daniel Wild, Ph.D., Head of Sustainability Investing R&D.  “The two concepts complement each other and we are proud to see the strategy being launched.”

“Sophisticated investors can now benefit from Robeco’s decade-long expertise in the conservative equity strategy and  RobecoSAM’s two-decade-long history of sustainable investment,” he added.

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