Sustainable investing firm Mirova announced that it has been selected to manage “Objectif biodiversité” a new fund launched by a consortium of French institutional investors, targeting investments in businesses transitioning to sustainable business models and in innovative solutions for biodiversity preservation.

The fund, with over €100 million and an initial duration of 5 years, will primarily focus on small and medium-sized European companies.

The investor consortium includes Abeille Assurances (Aéma Group), BNP Paribas Cardif, BPCE Assurances, the Caisse des Dépôts, CNP Assurances, EDF Gestion, MAIF, MACIF (Aéma Group), Malakoff Humanis, Société Générale Assurances, and Crédit Agricole. The announcement follows the launch by the consortium, along with Af2i (Association Française des Investisseurs Institutionnel) earlier this year of the “Fonds Objectif Biodiversité” initiative. Mirova will work with Af2i on management of the fund.

Criteria for candidates to be chosen for investment will be based on data from environmental disclosure platform CDP. CDP data is sourced from over 23,000 companies that reported their information through its platform in 2023. This data will be used in the investment strategy to assess companies’ exposure to risks, and the progress made in reducing negative impacts on biodiversity. Mirova will be trained and supported by CDP experts to use this information to identify and evaluate companies’ risk management, as well as their dependencies and opportunities in areas such as climate change, water security, biodiversity, deforestation, and plastic pollution.

This is the first fund launched as part of the initiative, with future launches anticipated in 2025.

Hervé Guez, Global Head of Listed Assets at Mirova, said:

“We are thrilled to have been chosen to manage this pioneering fund, which illustrates our commitment to biodiversity preservation and our expertise in responsible investment. We believe that biodiversity will be a key topic for the coming years. It will not only involve investing in innovative small and medium-sized enterprises that provide solutions to biodiversity challenges but also actively engaging with large companies to encourage them to make biodiversity a transformational issue.”