RobecoSAM, a sustainable investment specialist, and S&P Dow Jones Indices, one of the world’s leading index providers, have announced the launch of the Dow Jones Sustainability Diversified Indices Family (DJSI Diversified Family).
Sustainable investing specialist RobecoSAM and S&P Dow Jones have launched a series of diversified sustainable indices.
The indices’ diversified approach selects the most sustainable companies from the global or regional S&P BMI universe while ensuring that the resulting index has minimal country, sector or size biases relative to its reference S&P BMI benchmark and, therefore, a negligible tracking error.
The indices have been designed to be used as benchmarks for investors who measure their performance against a standard index but who value the integration of sustainability criteria, and are also well suited to act as underlyings to index-linked investment products such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Guido Giese, Head of Indices at RobecoSAM, said: “We launched the Diversified Family in response to increasing demand we have seen in the market for a sustainability index that gives investors the opportunity to gain exposure to sustainability without taking on too much risk relative to their standard benchmark. It is an optimal solution for passive investors looking to integrate sustainability into their portfolios while remaining close to the benchmark in terms of asset allocation.”
Alka Banerjee, Managing Director of Global Equity Indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices, added: “The DJSI Diversified Indices measure the performance of the world’s sustainability leaders while ensuring geographic diversification and reducing tracking error to traditional global benchmarks. We are excited to again work with RobecoSAM in launching new sustainability indices.”
The index family covers 26 developed market and 20 emerging market countries and replicates the regional and sector allocation of the S&P Global LargeMidCap Index while taking sustainability performance into account. Companies’ sustainability profiles are evaluated using RobecoSAM’s proprietary Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) methodology.
The new indices leverage the same research capabilities used to construct the existing DJSI series, the basis of a number of ETFs including the iShares Dow Jones Global Sustainability Screened ETF (IGSG) and iShares Dow Jones Europe Sustainability Screened ETF (IESE), which are listed on the London Stock Exchange, Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext Amsterdam.
The full DJSI Diversified Index line-up is as follows:
Dow Jones Sustainability World Diversified Index
Dow Jones Sustainability World Developed Diversified Index
Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Diversified Index
Dow Jones Sustainability Europe Diversified Index
Dow Jones Sustainability North America Diversified Index
Dow Jones Sustainability Asia Pacific Diversified
Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Plus Diversified Index
Dow Jones Sustainability World Developed ex Korea Diversified Index