Description

The fund incorporates environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations to a multifactor investment approach. It tracks an index that aims to significantly reduce its exposure to Carbon Asset Stranding Risk by excluding firms that: 1) own fossil fuel reserves, 2) are classified in the energy sector, particularly engaged in fossil fuels, 3) derive significant revenue from fossil fuels including coal, oil and gas, and 4) have a portion of thermal coal in their power generation fuel mix. Securities must also meet the funds pre-determined ESG standards in order to be selected. Remaining securities are then filtered out based on six investment factors: size (selecting midcap stocks only), valuation, momentum, volatility, profitability and investment. A proprietary diversification-based weighting scheme is then applied to each of the six filtered groups. The index is rebalanced on a quarterly basis.