Author: Erik Reichmuth, Timber Finance Initiative
Sustainable investments are the trend. Swiss Sustainable Finance writes in its 2021 Market Report: «The volume of sustainable investments grew by 31 percent to CHF 1,520.2 billion in 2020. Sustainable investment funds showed the highest growth rate at 48 percent…»[1] Globally, the figure is even more impressive: currently, 4 trillion dollars are flowing into sustainable investments – a much larger sum than the calculated investment of 2.5 trillion dollars that is supposed to be required to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. [2] One thing is clear: despite this sum, the UN goals are far from being achieved. Why is that?
Put simply, there are two well-known reasons: Sustainable investments are often woolly and unclear in their effect. Sometimes it is enough to take out oil and coal and the portfolio is considered «green». Too few clear sustainability ratings are available for both private investors and financial experts. The really and truly sustainable forest, from which the term sustainability originally comes, has been forgotten in many portfolios.
New financial products for forestry and timber industry
When we founded the «Timber Finance Initiative» with finance and timber experts in 2021, our goal was clear: we wanted to develop clearly positioned, new, sustainable financial products for the booming forest and timber industry. The aim was to demonstrate the climate impact of the industry – the long-term storage of CO2 in wood building products – and to make the industry accessible to investors. In the medium term, investors should be able to invest in solid SMEs in the industry through a «Timber Finance Holzfonds». In this way, the maximum (climate) impact can be generated, as the (timber construction) products can replace CO2-intensive building materials such as steel and concrete, which are responsible for 40% of greenhouse gases worldwide.
First step: Timber Finance Index
But why should investors be interested? The forestry and timber industry is not exactly a tech stock. To show their attractiveness, we have developed the world’s first index that maps the entire value chain of modern engineered timber construction in Europe, Canada and the USA. 1,600 companies were analysed and broken down to 30. The thematic focus is on companies that contribute to the production of durable timber construction products – and therefore have a demonstrably positive climate impact through the storage of CO2 in wood. Neither the pure forest in the form of reforested precious woods, as existing indices do, nor short-lived paper production is represented.
Strong performance of the industry
The performance of the Timber Finance Index shows that the forestry and timber industry is at the beginning of a growth spurt: since March 2020, it has clearly outperformed the MSCI World and the S&P Timber and Forest Index. Studies suggest that industry growth will be boosted by the global search for CO2 storage opportunities, the Paris Agreement and the UN’s sustainability goals. [3] The boom has begun.
[1] Swiss Sustainable Finance – Study on the Swiss market for sustainable investments 2021.
[2] Do sustainable investments make the world a better place? The national economy 2021.
[3] Global Timber Outlook 2020.