Targeting resource efficiency in its portfolio companies, Osmosis has managed to achieve an average reduction of 61% in carbon, 68% in water and 77% in waste, across its strategies, relative to their benchmarks, it claims.

Osmosis used a proprietary environmental database that it developed to find and tilt its portfolios towards resource efficient companies.

The database works by collecting and standardising the relevant corporate environmental disclosures on carbon emissions, water consumption, and waste generation. The methodology then takes these key resource efficiency indicators to make investment decisions as, Osmosis argues, it identified early on that resource efficiency could be used as a predictor of firm value and an independent source of alpha. This research is corroborated by robust statistical evidence over time across economic sectors and geographic regions, it says.

The firm also seeks to set itself apart by only assessing actions a company has taken that feeds through to their environmental balance sheet.

“The past year has been challenging for many sustainable investment funds [but] our focus on resource efficiency has continued to deliver in this challenging macro environment, which has resulted in the on-boarding of new clients from Australia, Brazil, North America, Europe and the UK and seen assets grow significantly,” said Ben Dear, CEO and founder of Osmosis.

Over 18 months, to the end of May, the investment manager has grown its assets under management by 144%. This was done in part by winning mandates from an Australian Government Pension Scheme and the East Sussex Pension Fund.