Impax Asset Management’s Asia-Pacific strategy was the most impactful per dollar invested of its three main listed equity strategies, the asset manager said in its fifth annual report, which discloses the environmental impact of its investments. The findings also highlighted the resource and pollution challenges facing Asia. For example, “every $10 million of investment led to 11,300 megalitres of water treated, saved or provided (up from 6,660 megalitres in 2017) and 3,460 tonnes of materials recovered, or waste treated (compared with 2,920 tonnes the previous year),” Impax said in a statement. The report examines the positive environmental impact the strategies have been able to provide over a one-year period – rather than a lifecycle – by investing in companies’ products and services, namely those providing environmental solutions. It also provides data on four environmental outputs per $10 million on renewable electricity generated, water treated, saved or provided, recovered or treated waste and tonnes of coal displaced in Asian cities in 2018. Widespread air pollution in Asian cities can be alleviated by investment in renewable energy and natural gas distribution but attributing a health benefit to humans remains a challenge from an investment perspective. However, “Impax estimates that the burning of 5,400 tonnes of coal (4,000 tonnes in 2017), was avoided which is equivalent to 100 people smoking 20 packets of cigarettes a day for a year – symbolising the health impact or ‘avoided harm’.” Impax’s three main listed equity strategies and its renewable energy private equity strategy “are aligned with the Paris Agreement goal to hold global warming to no more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels,” Impax said. Impact manages approximately $18.4 billion in listed and real asset strategies. ©2019 funds global asia