Foresight launches inaugural sustainability report

PRESS RELEASE

Foresight Group announces inaugural sustainability report

·      Foresight Group today published its inaugural sustainability report highlighting the company's long-term ambition, strategy and key sustainability developments

·      The report features Foresight's launch of its proprietary sustainability data platform: PACT ("Platform Advancing Change Together") to enhance measurement and meaningful target setting

·    The report also highlights Foresight's development of a "Nature Recovery Blueprint", a deliverable from Foresight's Sustainability Partnership with the Eden Project launched in 2022

28 June 2023: Foresight Group ("Foresight") is pleased to announce the launch of its inaugural sustainability report published today.

The report outlines Foresight's success in the delivery of significant progress of their sustainability strategy and key projects across the business and wider investment strategy. As one of the pioneers of sustainable infrastructure investing, sustainability is integral to Foresight's overall strategy.

The report provides key insight into key developments over the FY23, long-term strategy, priorities and partnerships that will further advance Foresight's approach to sustainability, across its corporate business as well as across the three investment divisions.

Key features of the report include:

·      Foresight's Carbon Reduction plan: Over the last four years, Foresight Group has been measuring the company's corporate carbon footprint covering Scope 1 and 2 emissions and material Scope 3 categories, including travel. In FY20, Foresight gained carbon neutral status, which has since been maintained. In FY22 Foresight worked with a third party to calculate emissions for the company's investment portfolio for the first time. Over the last year, Foresight stepped up efforts to gain better understanding of its emissions data by implementing a new sustainability data platform.

·      The launch of Foresight's sustainability data platform: Known internally as PACT: "Platform Advancing Change Together", Foresight now uses Salesforce's Net Zero Cloud application. This will serve both the corporate business and private equity portfolio of SMEs including the Private Equity division's new impact fund, which supports Irish SMEs. Foresight will be able to capture emissions data (Scopes 1, 2 and 3) produced by the Group and our portfolio companies in line with the GHG protocol. PACT will also enable all users to measure governance and social metrics such as employment figures, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ("DE&I") data, charitable giving, and engagement - all of which will be explored over the coming year.

·      Foresight Sustainable Forestry Company Plc ("FSFC") became the first company to receive the London Stock Exchange Voluntary Carbon Market designation: FSFC is the first to receive this designation. The VCM designation will be applied to funds or operating companies that are admitted to the LSE's Main Market or AIM and which are intent on investing into climate change mitigation projects that are expected to yield voluntary carbon credits. The credit offering revolutionises how companies can offset their unabatable emissions. It transforms offsetting from a one-way cost, into a positively contributing investment that can deliver an attractive risk adjusted return on investment.

·      The Foresight and Eden Project Partnership Update:  During the first year of the partnership, Foresight and the Eden Project have collaborated on the delivery of projects such as the "Nature Recovery Blueprint," which will seek to guide land managers on the practical actions they can take to measure, manage and improve nature and biodiversity across their land holdings. Specific sites among Foresight Solar's (FSFL) solar portfolio have been selected as pilot projects, where targeted approaches to sustainable land management and proactive, nature-focused interventions will be applied to maximise biodiversity gain. Ultimately the relationship with the Eden project is further testament to how cross-industry collaboration can help businesses to foster innovation and take collective action to mitigate the impacts of climate change and address the nature crisis.

Meanwhile, Foresight's climate disclosure in line with the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) is due to be published on 4th July in tandem with the company's annual report.

Lily Billings, Head of Sustainability at Foresight said: "We are really pleased to publish our inaugural Sustainability Report, demonstrating sustainability progress across the corporate business and our investment divisions in FY23. We are incredibly proud of our achievements this year, from the work done in partnership with the Eden Project to the launch of our sustainability data platform, and the strategic investments made over the year to support the wider sustainability transition. With more data, the PACT platform will enhance our ability to further develop our Group sustainability strategy and set ourselves more meaningful targets and ambitions year on year. This report marks a critical step in demonstrating our sustainability approach and advancements to our stakeholders and we look forward to building on this momentum in the years to come".  

You can access the full Sustainability Report here.

-ENDS-

For more information contact:

Chloe Mead: [email protected] / +44 (0) 20 3911 1279
Michael Mpofu: [email protected] / +44 (0) 79 3268 1947

About Foresight Group ("Foresight")

Foresight Group was founded in 1984 and is a leading listed infrastructure and private equity investment manager. With a long-established focus on ESG and sustainability-led strategies, it aims to provide attractive returns to its institutional and private investors from hard-to-access private markets. Foresight manages over 350 infrastructure assets with a focus on solar and onshore wind assets, bioenergy and waste, as well as renewable energy enabling projects, energy efficiency management solutions, social and core infrastructure projects and sustainable forestry assets. Its private equity team manages eleven regionally focused investment funds across the UK and an SME impact fund supporting Irish SMEs. This team reviews over 2,500 business plans each year and currently supports more than 250 investments in SMEs. Foresight Capital Management manages four strategies across seven investment vehicles with an AUM of £1.3 billion.

Foresight operates in eight countries across Europe, Australia and United States with AUM of £12.2 billion*. Foresight Group Holdings Limited listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange in February 2021. https://www.foresightgroup.eu/shareholders

*Based on Foresight Group unaudited AUM as at 31 March 2023