Where next for the transition to a more sustainable economy?

By Ian Simm Chris Dodwell
17th September 2020

At the heart of our investment philosophy lies the search for resilient businesses set to thrive in the transition to a more sustainable economy.

At the heart of our investment philosophy lies the search for resilient businesses set to thrive in the transition to a more sustainable economy. With the unprecedented market response to COVID-19 continuing to evolve, we believe this has only reinforced the imperative of such a transition.

We are pleased to present a recording of our recent webinar, where our experts discussed

  • Investing in a post-COVID world inclusive of diversity, equity, and inclusion: Human capital management is viewed by Impax as a material risk. We recognize C19 exacerbated existing social inequalities and heighted opportunities to address causes.
  • Impax connects with our investee companies to consider sharpening their strategies and risk management with an increased focus on low probability/high-impact risks.  We encourage them to be mindful of the collective societal needs when working on policy inclusive of the financial outcome.
  • Climate risk is no longer a distant problem: We are getting better at understanding financial impacts of climate risk and quantifying decision useful data. Our investment decisions incorporate physical risk, transition risks, corporate & policy response, and the financing of decarbonization.
  • Emerging policy changes to guide Building Back Better: Our Head of Policy and Advocacy represents Impax in key areas joining Corporate and Policy Response. We are seeing policy makers bring in regulators to speed up the pace of change. We are encouraged by the cross-pollination with task forces between industry and regulatory sectors.
  • Drivers powering the sustainable transition: We are taking informed actions to adjust exposures to opportunities and risks including structural changes and policy responses within the sustainable economy.
  • Opportunities for managing money and sharing insights with clients: Impax has developed frameworks for long-term investing. This includes a broader framework to asses trends going on in the sustainable economy. The depletive economic model is changing facilitated by consumer demands, policy, and market structures.

Ian Simm

Founder & CEO

Ian Simm is the Founder and Chief Executive of Impax Asset Management Group plc, one of the world’s leading investment managers dedicated to investing in the transition to a more sustainable economy. Prior to Impax, Ian was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company advising clients on environmental strategy.

Outside Impax, Ian is a member of the UK government’s Energy Innovation Board, which provides strategic oversight of public sector funding of energy innovation programmes, and is a board member of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, the European membership body for investor collaboration on addressing climate change. Between 2013 and 2018, he was a board member of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the UK’s leading funding agency for environmental science.

Ian has a first-class honours degree in physics from Cambridge University and a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University. In the last century he initiated and led an expedition to complete the first summer crossing of the Sahara Desert by tandem bicycle.

Recent blog posts

Chris Dodwell

Head of Policy and Advocacy

Chris is a climate change and environmental policy expert with over 25 years’ public and private sector experience. He is responsible for managing Impax’s engagement in the development of policy issues and providing insights on policy to the firm’s investment teams.

Before joining Impax in 2019 Chris worked at Ricardo Energy & Environment for eight years as Director of Climate Change, Clean Growth and Strategic Partnerships. Here he was responsible for overseeing key projects in the aforementioned areas as well as building relationships with clients in the public and financial services sectors. Prior to this he worked for 10 years at the heart of the UK Government’s work on climate change, including leading the UK’s implementation of the EU Emissions Trading System and heading the UK Delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Chris began his career as a solicitor at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer where he worked on a variety of civil, criminal and public law litigation relating to the impact of pollution on the environment and human health.

Chris graduated with a BA Hons in Classics from the University of Cambridge in 1990 and later went on to achieve a Master of Laws in Environmental Law from University College London in 2002.

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