Former US Vice President Al Gore and a previous chief executive at Goldman Sachs Asset Management have launched an investment firm to seek out companies taking a responsible stance on big global issues like climate change.
London-based Generation Investment Management has been set up to tap growing demand for an investment style which can generate returns by blending traditional equity research with a focus on more intangible non-financial factors such as social and environmental responsibility and corporate governance.
"This new approach is designed to serve people who want to integrate sustainable returns with traditional equity analysis," Mr Gore said in a telephone interview.
Mr Gore will be chairman of Generation, with Mr David Blood - previously chief executive at Goldman's fund arm - as managing partner. Generation's other founders include Mr Mark Ferguson, a former co-head of pan-European research also at Goldman Sachs Asset Management and son of Manchester United manager Sir Alex Fergusaon, and Mr Peter Knight, a former campaign manager to ex-US President Bill Clinton, who will be president of Generation in the United States.
The founders intend to contribute an unspecified amount to the fund's start-up capital and have pledged to contribute five per cent of its profits to a charitable foundation focused on exploring issues of sustainable economic growth.
The firm, established as a private partnership, will be based in London and also has offices in Washington DC. It is due to start running client money by the second half of next year.
Generation has already signed up to a recent initiative by four major European investment groups called the Enhanced Analytics Initiative (EAI), which will devote five per cent of brokerage commissions to companies that take a longer-term and more rounded view of corporate performance.
Generation will launch a fund holding global equities, but initially targeted at developed markets, to be marketed to clients such as pension funds and charitable foundations, as well as wealthy private investors, he said.
Clients will be able to compare the fund's performance with a benchmark index such as the MSCI World Index. The firm will levy a fee linked to investment performance on a rolling three-year basis.