March 2025 commentary
Environmental
- Energy company AES Corp announced that it had signed agreements with Microsoft for renewable energy projects in the US Midwest. The agreements include three solar projects in Illinois, Michigan, and Missouri, totaling 475MW. Microsoft also signed two power purchase agreements with Energia, agreeing to buy a combined 50MW of renewable power from wind farms in County Clare and County Kerry in Ireland.
- Climate Impact Partners and Terra Natural Capital announced that Microsoft has agreed to purchase 1.5 million carbon removal credits over 30 years generated by afforestation projects in India. The purchase represents 50% of the 3 million carbon credits the Panna afforestation project in the Madhya Pradesh State will produce. The Panna project plans to grow to 11.6 million native trees across 20,000 hectares of farmer and community land.
- Google announced the launch of its new Carbon Footprinting tool for Google Advertising reports. The tool is designed to enable advertisers to measure and manage the carbon emissions generated by their advertising activities. It has been created to assist companies in complying with the growing requirements for sustainability reporting, particularly reporting on the emissions their supply chains are responsible for.
- Google, along with Amazon and Meta, joined a group of major global corporations pledging to support the goal of tripling global nuclear energy capacity by 2050. The group, called the ‘Large Energy Users Pledge’, is led by the World Nuclear Association and includes companies such as Bureau Veritas, Dow, Occidental, and Siemens Energy.
- Exus Renewables announced that it had signed a ten-year power purchase agreement with Google. Google will purchase 35MW of renewable energy generated by the Cascante wind farm in Navarra, Spain.
Social
- Visa’s Visa Foundation announced the launch of the ‘CatalyseHer Programme’. This new three-year initiative supports and empowers women-led small businesses through training, community building, and micro-grants. It aims to support 500 UK-based female business founders and help close the gender financing gap that faces women entrepreneurs in the UK.
Innovation
- Texas Instruments announced the world’s smallest microcontroller (MCU), measuring just 1.38mm2, around the size of a black pepper flake. The MCU is 38% smaller than the industry’s current smallest and will allow designers to optimise space in applications such as medical wearable devices and personal electronics, such as earbuds.
Last Month RRI Change
Biggest Decrease
Marriott International -8
Biggest Increase
IDEXX +29
IDEXX’s RepRisk index (RRI) increased by 29 in March. The increase was due to media coverage following dismissing claims against the company in a 2022 lawsuit. Pet owners filed the lawsuit from 14 US states, who accused IDEXX of inflating veterinary service costs. The suit claimed that IDEXX’s use of long-term, exclusive contracts for diagnostic testing products allowed the company to dominate the market, leading to high prices for pet owners. The judge ruled that the complaint had not shown the necessary legal standing to pursue many of its state-law claims against IDEXX. A prior ruling dismissed federal antitrust claims against IDEXX after concluding that the plaintiffs were not direct or indirect purchasers of the products in question. The judge allowed cases in Minnesota, North Carolina, and Missouri to proceed.
*Source: Bloomberg and company reports. Environmental numbers are weighted averages, others are simple averages except "R&D as a % of sales," which is a median. The Environmental numbers presented above are a guide only as only c.75% of portfolio companies reporting comparable numbers. Where constituent numbers are not available these are estimated by Fundsmith LLP Research based upon nearest comparable sector numbers obtainable and scaling for company’s assets. "Organic Growth" is the trailing twelve month, reported average sales growth excluding M&A and FX, using last reported numbers. Capital Impact™ is the Productive Asset Investment Ratio (capex/depreciation) multiplied by Return on Invested Capital (EBIT/invested capital) as last reported. The more productive the capital investment the higher the number.
RepRisk Data is sourced from RepRisk ESG Business Intelligence www.reprisk.com. RepRisk Indicator (RRI) uses an algorithm to access the risk of reputational damage to companies from 28 ESG issues and a variety of specific and thematic “hot topics”. E.g. Coral reef damage, human trafficking or threats to endangered species. 0-25 denotes low risk exposure, 26-49 medium risk exposure, 50-59 high risk exposure, 60-74 very high risk exposure and 75-100 extremely high risk exposure. We use the RRI to calculate our most/least sustainable portfolio firms. E, S and G scores are the weighted average percentage of the news stories about the related topic categories respectively. RRI change is how much the weighted average RRI score has changed in the last 30 days with best/ worst performer the largest movers. Peak RRI score is the highest weighted average RRI score in the last 2 years.
This product does not have a UK sustainable investment label as it does not have a sustainability goal as defined by the FCA’s SFDR.
