New KLD Global Climate Index Promotes
Clean Energy Solutions

KLD welcomes Research Product Manager

New KLD Global Climate Index Promotes
Clean Energy Solutions

On July 1, 2005, KLD launched the KLD Global Climate 100^SM Index to promote investment in publicly held companies leading the response to climate change.

The Global Climate 100 Index is comprised of companies demonstrating a commitment to renewable energy, alternative technologies and efficiency. By tracking the performance of these corporate leaders, the index identifies investment opportunities presented by climate change. Companies offering technological solutions to this well-known environmental concern are treating global warming as an important entrepreneurial opportunity.

General Electric, a leader in consumer product efficiency, has invested heavily in wind turbine manufacture and solar power to capitalize on potentially lucrative markets in renewable energy. Smaller companies such as Germany's Solon AG and Australia's Energy Developments have staked their futures on solar and biomass as energy resources for the future. Companies building the infrastructure for storing and delivering that renewably generated energy include Japan's GS Yuasa Corporation in new generation battery technologies and U.S.-based Echelon Corporation in energy monitoring systems. France’s Air Liquide and Korea’s Hyundai are among companies researching fuel cells in anticipation of a hydrogen economy.

KLD's strategy is to include a diversified group of large-, mid-, and small-cap companies representing sectors ranging from energy and utilities to industrials and consumer products. In so doing, the index takes advantage of the variety of corporate responses while building in broader diversification than that of an energy sector index.

The Global Climate 100 groups its constituents into three categories:

• Renewable energy for wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass involvement;
• Clean technology and efficiency for technical innovations and practices that reduce demand for conventional fossil fuels and their emissions; and
• Future fuels for natural-gas derived clean fuels, biofuels, and fuel cells.

The index also recognizes that large, integrated companies bring strong market capacities to ascendant or underutilized technologies. Their involvement may account for only a small percentage of the company's total business, but because of their scale allows them to control a large share of the market. BP and Toyota command major shares of their respective alternative markets -- BP in solar and Toyota in hybrid vehicles -- although devoting a minor investment relative to their primary business.

The Global Climate 100 balances the contributions of the large companies with small climate-friendly lines of business and small, pure-play companies by giving them equal weight in the Index. Relative to a capitalization-weighted index, this discounts the impact of large companies and features the small companies. While there are many companies to choose from, the KLD Global Climate 100 captures the broad range of involvement in different sectors, making the index representative of the market of companies that will contribute to resolving the impact of climate change.

KLD welcomes Research Product Manager Graham Sinclair joined KLD’s Research Products Department in February of this year. As the department’s Product Manager, Graham is responsible for the ongoing maintenance and development of the full range of KLD’s Research Products, including Socrates and KLD Compliance.

Prior to joining KLD, Graham served as consultant for SRIWorldGroup, Inc. during the development of their OneReport CSR reporting platform and with Villanova University (during his graduate studies there) as Project Manager for the Arnone-Lerer SRI Portfolio, where he guided the design and implementation of its Investment Policy and qualitative investment analysis. During that same period, Graham led an engagement for the John Templeton Foundation that focused on innovations in philanthropy and performance measurement, delivering a white paper on entrepreneurial philanthropy and a web-based calculator developed for thought leadership impact. He held earlier positions in his native South Africa, first with NEDCOR Investment Bank as Institutional Director of Fund Distribution, then as Regional Director of Strategic Marketing for SEI Investments.

Graham enjoys wildlife, especially in the oceans around South Africa, where he was a member of the World Champion Durban Surf Lifesaving Club in his hometown of Durban, South Africa. He still runs regularly - not as swiftly as he once did - and tackles the occasional triathlon.

Click here to read more KLD staff biographies