The impact on biodiversity, new selection criteria for investment funds
Since its inception, the company Goodvest sets itself apart with its commitment to green finance. The company offers a selection of financial vehicles via its life insurance and its PER, selected based on sectoral exclusion criteria and climate impact. For individuals hunting for assets respecting these matters, this range offers invaluable objective analysis.
The startup has recently enriched its funds selection methodology with a "third pillar: impact on biodiversity". "Climate issues and biodiversity preservation are closely linked, which means we must incorporate biodiversity impact into our selection criteria. It's a new testament to our ambition to offer French savers investment solutions that generate financial returns while also contributing to the resolution of our time's major environmental crises", explains Joseph Choueifaty, co-founder of Goodvest.
In partnership with Carbon4Finance and CDC Biodiversity, Goodvest now uses the BIA-GBS database to evaluate a "biodiversity score" for businesses. The selected assets now take into account the pressures exerted on biodiversity and ecosystems, such as the artificialization of the soil, the occupation, and pollution of lands and aquatic spaces by the financed companies.
The challenge of SRI investments: navigating through the blur of supports
Goodvest's initiative arrives as a milestone as the demand for sustainable funds grows, while the legibility of their investment strategies remains complex. With the rise of socially responsible investments (SRI), investors sensitive to the impact of their investments are faced with a major dilemma: how to choose the right vehicle and ensure that its investment policy is genuinely aligned with their own ethical principles? Although the criteria for assigning the SRI label were revised this year, they remain broad enough to often leave room for ambiguity in investment choices.
This difficulty is exacerbated by the need to clearly define the criteria that distinguish a truly sustainable and responsible investment. The incorporation of impact on biodiversity further complicates this landscape, necessitating a more in-depth analysis to identify investments that go beyond merely promoting a green image, effectively contributing to combating climate change and biodiversity loss.
Biodiversity, long relegated to the background in sustainable investment criteria, plays a crucial role. The degradation of ecosystems and the risk of extinction for many species underscore the urgency of integrating these issues into financial decisions within sustainable finance. The problem lies in the vast range of responsible investment criteria, which vary from social and societal ethics to greenhouse gas emissions, making the choice of "ESG" criteria selected by managers critical. Thus, choosing an SRI-labeled fund does not necessarily guarantee a favorable contribution to one specific criterion over another.
In this context, some funds specialize, like the Tocqueville Biodiversity SRI, a thematic fund launched in November 2023 by La Banque Postale Asset Management. But beyond the choice of an ultra-specific fund, trying to diversify investments among different vehicles committed to the same cause can quickly become complex. So, Goodvest's strategy thus provides a solution in terms of legibility and accessibility to "green" placements.
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