KBIGI - An Choill Bheag
DUBLIN ASSET MANAGER MARKS UN INTERNATIONAL DAY OF FORESTS AND ITS 40TH YEAR
WITH CHOILL BHEAG INITIATIVE AT DRIMNAGH CASTLE SCHOOL
In 2012 the UN General Assembly proclaimed 21st March the International Day of Forests¹ (‘IDF’), creating a focal point for the organisation of activities designed to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of trees and forests. The Collaborative Partnership on Forests selects a different campaign each year, with ‘Forest restoration: a path to recovery and well-being’, the focus in 2021. Specialist asset management boutique KBI Global Investors (‘KBIGI’) has chosen this, the 10th International Day of Forests, to mark its 40th year in the asset management business.
The IFSC-based firm will fund the planting of a Choill Bheag – a small, dense, biodiverse native woodland habitat planted on school, college, business, or community grounds – at the Drimnagh Castle Secondary School² (located on the Long Mile Road), as part of its considerable Corporate Social Responsibility (‘CSR’) programme, its Carbon Offset programme (designed to mitigate the impact of the firm’s necessary business travel) and broader, longstanding commitment to a more sustainable environment.
What is a Choill Bheag? Background
In a schools’ context, Choill Bheags provide both an educational and recreational resource, creating outdoor living classrooms – and with space created for seating, pupils can spend time developing the skills necessary to maintain, monitor and study the essential and beautiful ecosystem within their own school grounds, participating in Biodiversity & Climate Action, Citizen Science, Woodland Skills, Nature Connection and Wellbeing programmes. The initiative pivots on practical sustainable tree planting and long-term woodland and eco-system education and management, with a strong emphasis on creating the woodland and hedgerow habitat that are then studied and managed as part of a longer-term educational initiative.
An Choill Bheag (‘AnCB’) is a long-term educational programme and an initiative of Learning about Forests³ (‘LEAF’) Ireland, an International programme of the Foundation for Environmental Education⁴ (‘FEE’), and the Environmental Education Unit (‘EEU’) of An Taisce⁵ (the National Trust for Ireland), which runs some of Ireland’s largest and most successful environmental programmes and campaigns. An Taisce is the FEE member organisation for Ireland, with responsibility for implementing the LEAF programme at a national level – FEE being recognised by UNESCO as a world-leader within the fields of Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development.
KBIGI’s commitment to the Irish environment
The firm planted approximately 6,000 trees at a site near Castlerea in Roscommon as part of its Carbon Offset Programme – a three-year initiative which sees the firm working with the Irish Woodland Environmental Fund – a little more than a year ago, with a further 200 trees to be planted at the Drimnagh Castle Secondary School.
KBIGI has at the same time made a contribution of €2,000 to the basis.point charity, which launched a COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund, targeting projects such as the Peter McVerry Trust, Belvedere Youth Club and the Early Learning Initiative – all of which operate in the North Inner City.
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KBIGI, which manages a suite of Natural Resource investment strategies, boasts a long-standing commitment to Responsible Investing, dating back to the early 1980s. The firm is a member of and/or signatory to the Carbon Disclosure Project and Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change and part of a network of investors which support and promote the long-term benefits of sustainable investment. Further underlining its commitment, KBIGI recently announced its participation in the 50 Sustainability & Climate Leaders campaign, which shows us how companies across different sectors are responding to global emissions and pollution.
Commenting on the Choill Bheag initiative, Sean Hawkshaw, Chief Executive Officer at KBI Global Investors said, “We started out as the Investment Division of Ulster Investment Bank, some 40 years ago, and it is truly surreal marking this anniversary when we’re in lockdown. We have weathered the storm and have continued to attract new clients throughout the pandemic – which is a credit to all our employees, past and present.
“We have always played an active role in the community, and as children are amongst the groups who have been impacted most significantly by COVID, it seemed fitting that we celebrate our 40th year with a schools initiative. I am certain the Choill Bheag will make for a greatly enhanced learning environment and we look forward to seeing the project advance as restrictions are lifted.”
– ENDS –
¹ http://www.fao.org/international-day-of-forests/en/
² https://www.drimnaghcastle.ie/
³ https://leafireland.org/themes/an-choill-bheag/
⁴ https://www.fee.global/
⁵ https://www.antaisce.org/education
Journalists seeking further information or who wish to speak with KBI Global Investors should contact:
Gordon Puckey
Phoenix Financial PR
+44 7799 767 468
gordon@phoenixfinancialpr.co.uk
NOTES TO EDITORS
- About KBI Global Investors (‘KBIGI’)
Established in 1980, KBI Global Investors is a specialist institutional asset management boutique, offering a range of Global Equities and Natural Resources strategies. The firm manages assets for a broad range of clients – public and corporate pension schemes, sub-advisory investors, foundations and endowments, wealth managers, private banks and investment intermediaries included.
KBIGI has a global client base and today holds mandates in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia as well as for some of Ireland’s largest and best-known corporations. Part of Amundi, the firm is headquartered in Dublin, with a representative sales office in Boston, Massachusetts.
KBIGI boasts a track record of delivering consistent and outstanding risk-adjusted investment performance over the longer term, its highly experienced investment team today managing €11.2bn. (This is the combined AUM of KBI Global Investors Ltd and KBI Global Investors (North America) Ltd at 28th February 2021).
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The firm is headed by CEO Sean Hawkshaw, with members of the KBIGI team holding 12.5% of the equity in the firm.
www.kbiglobalinvestors.com
- KBI Global Investors and Natural Resource strategies
One of the firm’s principal goals is to be first to market with value-adding investment themes of the future. In the late 1990s, KBIGI was amongst the earliest investors to recognise the inherent source of alpha (the active return on an investment) from investing in companies providing solutions to sustainability challenges related to the provision of food, energy, water and the mitigation of and adaptation to the impacts of climate change.
Having identified a compelling and clear need for investment in companies providing solutions to the global shortages of clean water and energy, the firm first launched strategies in these areas in 2000. Building up its team and intellectual capital in these themes, KBIGI added a climate change strategy in 2007, a sustainable impact agribusiness (food) strategy in 2008 and a sustainable impact infrastructure strategy in 2017.
From 2018 onwards, KBIGI has been reporting on the extent to which its Natural Resource strategies contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (‘SDGs’). This significant initiative involves the detailed classification of all revenues of the companies held in each portfolio, determining whether the activity from which those revenues arise is contributing, positively or negatively, to one or more of the SDGs.
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