Credit Suisse launches Ocean Engagement Fund to accelerate the blue economy.

Credit Suisse launches Ocean Engagement Fund to advise and steer portfolio companies towards tackling any practices that harm the ocean.

Credit Suisse launches Ocean Engagement Fund to advise and steer portfolio companies towards tackling any practices that harm the ocean.

Credit Suisse has launced an Ocean Engagement Fund with the non-profit The Ocean Fund. Its aim is to advise and steer portfolio companies towards tackling any practices that harm the ocean.

​The new fund comes as Credit Suisse and Responsible Investor publish new research exploring the need for investment into the Blue Economy to help accomplish the SDG 14: Life Below Water. 

Credit Suisse believes that the Blue Economy will become increasingly important for investment opportunitoes within the coming years.

Over the past year the international financial services firm has put the sustainability of the oceans at the forefront of their investment plans.

According to the World Bank, Blue Economy “is the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs, and ocean ecosystem health.” The WWF stresses that the Blue Economy must “provide social and economic benefits for current and future generations; restores protects and maintains diverse, productive and resilient ecosystems; and is based on clean technologies, renewable energy and circular material flows.”

The report found that over a third of large institutional investors see the sustainable Blue Economy as one of the most important sustainable investment topics in 2020, yet it remains one of the least invested themes across impact investors due to the lack of available solutions.

“The ocean is amongst some of the least invested topics from the UN Sustainability Goals yet more than a third of institutional investors have expressed their interesting in investing in the Blue Economy,” said Marisa Drew, chief sustainability officer and global head of sustainability strategy advisory and finance at Credit Suisse.

The report found that increasing numbers of private and institutional investors are keen to support companies that are already good stewards of the ocean. Influential shareholders have been pushing for the activities and behaviours of companies to comply with the ESG standards.

Credit Suisse highlighted the important role investors have by giving this example:

“In 2016, investors in UK supermarket chain Tesco urged the retailer to sell only fish and seafood certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. Tesco, the UK’s biggest fish seller, now has a sourcing policy aiming for 100% of its seafood to come from certified sustainable sources and is involved in instrustry initiatives promoting transparency, such as the Ocean Discourse Project.”

The bank believes that corporate investors who engage in SDG14 will reduce risks to both the ocean and the company, enhancing its competitiveness while improving ocean health.

Read the full report here.

10 September 2020

Climate Action