Agricole broker Cheuvreux wins major SRI research award

French research house picks up second Farsight Award for long-term investment report on carbon and utilities

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Cheuvreux, the equity research arm of French bank Crédit Agricole, has picked up a major award for excellence in research on the impact of long-term climate change and sustainability on investment.
The Farsight Award, created by the £31bn Universities Superannuation Scheme and Gresham College in London, aims to encourage research into long-term trends across the capital markets. Cheuvreux won the award for its Utilities vs. Carbon: Phase II research, which examines the impact of the second phase of EU carbon emission limits for utility companies. Click here for report
David Russell, co-head of Responsible Investment at USS said: “To make the best investment decisions, fund managers need the best analysis. By highlighting excellence in individual reports, such as Cheuvreux’s, USS believes the Farsight Award supports the aims of the EAI in generating better integrated long term extra financial research.”
The awarded was presented by David Blood, managing partner of Generation Investment Management to Stéphane Voisin, head of sustainable and responsible investment at Cheuvreux. Voisin said: “Cheuvreux SRIteam and I are deeply honoured to have won the second Farsight Award. Crédit Agricole Cheuvreux is highly committed to developing long-term extra-financial and sustainable investment research, and we are pleased that the financial services community increasingly recognises and rewards its value.”
Over 300 senior financial services people attended the event which followed a lecture from Blood on “The Case For Sustainable Business”.
Seperately, the French Social Investment Forum (SIF), supported by Eurosif, its European equivalent, have announced the winners of the French SIF European Award for “Finance and Sustainability” 2008.
The prize for best research article went to Giovanni Cespa and Giacinta Cestone of the Universita di Salerno for a piece titled: “The more formalised ethical codes are the less management, including CEOs, will utilise them to their advantage,” published in the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy. The best PHD thesis was awarded to Jeroen Derwall of the University of Maastricht for research titled: “The contribution of social and environmental management can be financially evaluated.”
Frenchsif link