31 May 2021 – Irish Funds, the voice of the funds and asset management industry in Ireland, has announced it has achieved the Carbon Footprint Standard showcasing its commitment to manage its carbon footprint and achieve carbon neutrality.
The process, which will be undertaken annually, includes an assessment of Irish Funds carbon emissions and energy use and provides a roadmap to track and reduce carbon emissions ‘at source’ as much as possible and to compensate for unavoidable emissions – via carbon offsetting.
Irish Funds offset 23 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the total amount emitted by the organisation during the 2020 calendar, by supporting forest conservation projects led by the Gold Standard for the Global Goals. This a globally recognised standard to quantify, certify and maximise the contributions of climate and development initiatives toward climate change mitigation and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Pat Lardner, CEO of Irish Funds commented: “As an industry, we have pledged to take action to mitigate climate change risk through sustainable finance. To provide true leadership we must also work to embed sustainability in our own operations and everyday lives. This means measuring our impact and taking action to reduce or offset our carbon footprint. These small actions add up and we are proud to work with INDOS Financial and other innovators across our network to support change towards a more sustainable environment.”
Victoria Gillespie, Head of ESG, INDOS Financial, who advised Irish Funds through the process, added: INDOS Financial established operations in Ireland in 2013 and has valued the support and guidance provided by the Irish Funds team for many years. It was therefore a pleasure to lend our ESG experience to support Irish Funds through the carbon neutral process and help them achieve this important goal. It is clear the investment industry in Ireland is increasingly embracing sustainability and ESG more broadly and we expect more firms will follow Irish Funds’ lead and become carbon neutral organisations.
The carbon neutral achievement was announced at the Irish Funds Annual Conference last week titled: “Accelerated Transformation – disruption and opportunity” which included a panel discussion on ESG – from green shoots to full bloom, highlighting the evolution of ESG as Ireland continues to build on its highly successful funds and investment management sector to become a global center of excellence for sustainable investment funds. The participants for the panel included Dr Tara Shine from Change by Degrees, Sean MacHale from the Bank of Ireland, Joanne McEnteggert from IQ EQ and Anna Driggs from ICI Global.
The net zero carbon milestone also builds on the recently launched industry Green Team Network (GTN) initiative to facilitate knowledge and collaboration on sustainability pledges and goals across fund and asset management companies in Ireland. The GTN team were the successful winners of the Grant Thornton Irish Funds Sustainathon 2020 challenge.
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Notes to Editor
Irish Funds was guided throughout the carbon neutral process by INDOS Financial. its overall carbon footprint for the period 1st January 2020 to 31st December 2020 was independently assessed by Carbon Footprint Ltd. The calculation uses the 2020 emission factors developed by the UK Government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department for Business, Environment & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) for reporting emissions.
Homeworking emissions followed methodology published by EcoAct whitepaper. The carbon footprint assessment includes the company’s scope 1 and 2 emissions, as well as flights and home-working emissions from scope 3 which includes – Electricity consumption, Air travel and Homeworking.
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About Irish Funds
The Irish Funds Industry Association (Irish Funds) is the voice of the funds and asset management industry in Ireland. Founded in 1991, Irish Funds represents fund managers, depositaries, administrators, transfer agents, professional advisory firms and other specialist firms involved in the international fund services industry in Ireland.
Irish Funds’ more than 150 members service or manage in excess of 14,000 funds with a net asset value of €5.7 trillion. Irish Funds objective is the voice of the funds & asset management industry in Ireland, ensuring Ireland is the premier location to enable and support global investing through its reputation for trust, capability and innovation.
For further information about Irish Funds, please visit www.irishfunds.ie
About INDOS Financial
Founded in 2012, INDOS Financial has grown organically, developing solutions recognised as industry-leading within the fund oversight and depositary service space. INDOS is based in the UK and Co. Wexford, Ireland. Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) services for the investment management industry funds have been a core focus for the firm since 2019 and INDOS has supported several managers and industry bodies such as Irish Funds to become Carbon Neutral. INDOS became a carbon neutral organisation in 2019 and in 2020 was recognised as a carbon reduced firm. INDOS also provides a range of independent depositary and AML officer services to investment funds. INDOS recently announced that it has been acquired by JTC plc, the global provider of fund, corporate and private client services. For further information about INDOS Financial and JTC plc, please visit www.indosgroup.com and www.jtcgroup.com.