Among the study’s key findings:

Companies’ risk exposures to climate change varies widely, both between and even within different industry sectors and geographic regions

Companies with the most robust risk management architecture and ability to seize competitive opportunities on the upside have tended to out-perform their same-sector peers financially over the past three years

The “Carbon Beta(c) premium” for leading companies appears to be growing larger over time, as regulatory regimes tighten around the world

Non-verified, company-provided information provides an extremely poor and limited basis for actual investment decisions. More in-depth company research is clearly required

In introducing the study, Innovest founder and Chief Executive Matthew Kiernan commented:

“As the authors of each of the Carbon Disclosure Project global reports in the five years since its inception, we at Innovest are only too aware of the power and importance of company disclosure. However, we have also believed for many years that self-reported, non-verified data supplied by the companies themselves is, by itself, a woefully inadequate basis for actual decisionmaking by sophisticated investors. The results of this study would seem to bear that out.

With over $40 trillion in institutional investor assets now concerned about climate change (Carbon Disclosure Project, 2007), it is increasingly critical that performance-driven investors move beyond simply pressing for greater company disclosure. We are now seeing them begin to demand the sorts of investment tools, research, and products they need to turn mere information into superior investment decisions and performance. In addition, such tools will allow them to meet their growing responsibilities as 21st century fiduciaries. We hope that this study will be helpful in that regard.”

Innovest Strategic Value Advisors is a leading global investment research house, with a particular focus on “non-traditional” drivers of investment risk and return. The firm’s largest outside investor is ABP, one of the three largest pension funds in the world.

Ratings and research reports from Innovest Strategic Advisors analyzing the environmental, social and governance performance of over 1,750 companies and their industries, including the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations, is available through Innovest’s partner CSRwire at http://www.csrwire.com/reports/independent

In both 2006 and 2007, Innovest was rated the #1 global provider of “non-traditional” investment research in the Thomson Extel survey of over 180 major institutional investors.