Trucost

Trucost Plc is an environmental research consultancy which helps clients to understand the environmental impacts of business activities. The company provides data and analysis on company emissions and natural resource usage and presents these in financial, as well as quantity terms, providing the basis for an improved dialogue between companies, investors and other stakeholders. Trucost offers expert advice and research to major corporations, both public and private, institutional investors and to government departments and associated agencies.

Set up in 2000, Trucost has developed a wealth of experience and expertise in the area of environmental performance, analysis and reporting. The company has researched and written the environmental reporting guidelines for UK business with the UK government, released in January 2006. Trucost has worked with leading multinational companies in a range of business sectors including Avis, Bloomsbury Publishing, BSKYB, Compass Group, LogicaCMG, Legal & General, Prudential and Ryanair.

Fund managers and analysts increasingly need to understand how environmental issues may have a financially material impact on companies’ future earnings and make comparisons between companies in a given sector. Trucost’s investor clients include Crédit Agricole Asset Management, the Environment Agency Pension Fund, Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR), Fortis Investment Management, GLG Partners, Henderson Global Investors, Hermes Pensions Management Ltd, the International Finance Corporation, the London Pensions Fund Authority and VicSuper.

Investors use the information to support active engagement with companies and to incorporate environmental performance measurement into their investments decisions. The data enables investors to assess the environmental footprint of their portfolios, to highlight poor performance, to better understand where environmental risk lies in portfolios, and to carbon optimise investments in order to maintain financial returns whilst reducing the carbon impact.