Sweep brings environmental responsibility to investment portfolios

A new player is committed to more environmentally responsible finance. Called Sweep, its positioning is distinguished firstly by its target, since it is aimed directly at investments and portfolio managers. Its new offer is thus dedicated to the financial players themselves and underlines the fact that climate issues now concern all players.

FACTS

• Sweep has launched Sweep for Finance to help financial players manage the carbon emissions of their entire investment portfolios.

• Firstly, by allowing them to obtain a complete overview, in real time, of the emissions of their investments.

• Secondly, by offering a tool for collaboration between economic players. The service is based on software that connects investors to the companies in their portfolio. Both actors are thus committed to collaboration, information sharing and a more accurate and efficient measurement of the carbon emissions linked to their economic activities.

• To be effective, Sweep for Finance relies on :

  • Detailed portfolio analysis based on the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) methodology,

  • sector benchmarks from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP),

  • Secure exchange of carbon data between investors and their portfolios.

• The service then delivers comprehensive, auditable reports to its clients in compliance with local and international regulations.

CHALLENGES

• An all-in-one tool: Sweep for Finance is aimed at asset managers, private equity funds or even banks themselves and offers them a turnkey solution to make their portfolios more virtuous and environmentally responsible. There is no need for these players to develop internal tools.

• Complying with regulations: Sweep also presents its offer as a way for financial players to simply comply with the new regulations that have come into force requiring them to communicate the climate impact of their investments. These transparency requirements necessitate the implementation of tools capable, like Sweep for Finance, of accurately tracking carbon emissions.

• Creating a collective dynamic: The concept of Sweep is based above all on a new technological model of engaging all the players in a single dynamic. The ultimate goal of Sweep is to accelerate decarbonisation on a global scale.

• Opening up its client base: Before serving financial players, Sweep was already working in various sectors, from consumer goods to manufacturing. Its status as a mission-driven company and its commitment to a topical issue enabled it to raise $100 million 12 months after the public launch of its platform.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Carbon calculators have become the killer-app of green neo-banks: Doconomy, Greenly or Ecolytiq.

• The banks themselves are offering their expertise to help companies make their carbon footprint in order to minimise it. BBVA offers this service to its customers.

• The Green Digital Finance Alliance, the Swiss Green Fintech Network and the Swiss State Secretariat for International Finance (SFI), propose a classification of fintechs according to a set of criteria relating to ecology. This classification is intended to be a unique tool to help harmonise standards of comparison in a green finance market that has gained in maturity.