Environmental Stewardship

Doing More for the Environment by Using Less

As we progress on our own corporate ESG journey, we’re rethinking business operations to use fewer of Earth’s precious resources. Among the actions we’ve taken to further our goal of being environmental stewards, we’ve:

Lowered our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

Continued to relocate our people to more environmentally friendly office spaces

Sharply reduced paper consumption globally

Engaged AB employees on sustainability issues

Adopted a firmwide Climate Change / TCFD Statement

AB and the Environment: Spotlights

Collaborating on Climate with the Earth Institute at Columbia University

In September 2020, AB and Columbia University marked one year since kicking off a collaboration to elevate the understanding of climate change impacts and how to translate them into investment analysis. We’re thrilled to partner with the Earth Institute, another leading institution, in applying research to pursue better outcomes.

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Arial view of shoreline against a forest

Our Climate Change Statement

As investors, we strive to integrate climate change risks and opportunities in our investment analysis, decision-making and solutions. We continue to train our professionals and develop proprietary tools, including our engagement and collaboration platform, ESIGHT. We’re also conducting a campaign to engage firms on climate risks, specifically advocating that companies lacking emissions-reduction targets put them in place.

Climate Change Statement

Greening AB’s Buildings and Offices

At AB, we’re working to place 65% of our employees in greener workspaces and more environmentally friendly buildings by 2025, as defined by ratings from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) or other local standards. We’re happy to share that our new office location in Shanghai recently achieved a gold-level LEED rating. The transition to our new global headquarters building in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, USA, is well under way, with the building’s completion expected in 2021. We’re also executing on plans to move into greener office spaces with our remaining New York employees and to transition our London staff to a new office location.

Women with glasses looking out a window, green, leafy plant in foreground

A Caucasian man with glasses and a black man with gray hair studying an model of an energy windmill

Engaging AB Employees on Sustainability

The Sustainable Employee Wellness Group (EWG) is dedicated to sustaining the environment both as a firm and as individuals. The group hosts regular events to engage and educate employees on topics including solar energy, recycling, safe water and eating sustainably.

Committed to Industry Leadership on Climate

AB is actively involved in climate-related organizations and initiatives:

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A scientist, dressed in white with a hard hat, kneeling down to inspect the broken earth

Analysts & Experts

Climate Science and Investing

AB is collaborating with climate experts at Columbia University’s Earth Institute to develop new insights and tools.

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Environmental Insights

ESG in Action

Improving Climate Change Models for Investments

A group of walruses lay on a floating iceberg in a turquoise Arctic sea.

21 January 2021 / 5 min read

by Sara Rosner Gauging the potential impacts of climate change on a company’s valuation or portfolio performance is extremely difficult. At AB, we’ve partnered with Columbia University’s Earth Institute to conduct an extensive review of existing climate change scenario-analysis providers and their various approaches.

Investment Insights

Assessing Climate Change in Portfolios

01 June 2020 / 12 min read

We asked two AB portfolio managers and two experts, from Columbia University and Willis Towers Watson, to provide their perspectives on what it will take for asset managers to effectively address climate change in their investment processes.

ESG in Action

ESG in Action: Protecting the Amazon by Investing in Brazilian Beef

An indigenous Brazilian woman and her child, in traditional face paint, stand in front of a log wall of a house.

21 October 2020 / 9 min read

by Thais Aleluia, Ted Mann Brazil's rate of deforestation has increased dramatically. Our positions in Brazilian beef producers provide an opportunity to promote sustainable practices that can help protect tropical forests while mitigating environmental and investment risks.