SDI Innovation Outlook analyzes millions of patents to quantify the alignment of companies’ patent portfolios with the UN SDGs
AMSTERDAM (December 1, 2022) – The Sustainable Development Investments Asset Owner Platform (SDI AOP) and Qontigo, its exclusive distribution partner, have announced the launch of the SDI Innovation Outlook. The new dataset provides forward looking information, by analyzing the alignment of companies’ patent portfolios with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
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The SDI Innovation Outlook is a combination of scores on 130 technology themes which have been identified through the SDI AOP taxonomy in a transparent and quality-assured mapping process by AI partner Entis. Currently, the dataset provides reports with detailed company profiles for over 2,200 firms.
“We evaluate millions of patents across the globe by using large-scale network analysis and proprietary statistical models. The analysis incorporates the quality and importance of individual patents, takes historical trends into account and provides granular insights for specific themes and technologies.”
James Leaton, Research Director, SDI AOP
“The growing community of investors using SDI data benefits from the consistent, objective way we have identified SDG goals and technologies across revenues and now patents. The deployment of artificial intelligence to implement our SDG framework is essential to process the huge volumes of data.”
The SDI Innovation Outlook is a new forward-looking SDI dataset, building on the SDI Classification dataset which assesses companies’ current product and service-related contributions to the SDGs based predominantly on revenues.
“The SDI Outlook enables users to identify potential for future value creation and test whether R&D activities match corporate commitments. This can feed into engagement strategies, peer comparison and portfolio construction.”
James Leaton, Research Director, SDI AOP
Alongside the release of the SDI Innovation Outlook, the SDI Classification dataset which focuses on a companies’ product and service-related contributions to the SDGs, moved from a semi-annual to quarterly release cycle. The SDI Classification universe was also further extended to include high yield bond issuers, in response to user demand. In August 2022, negative SDG contribution information was introduced to the dataset to identify revenues generated by products and services that are defined as inconsistent with achieving the UN SDGs.
The SDI AOP was launched in 2020 to work with investors to embed the UN SDGs into their investment processes and integrate SDG contributions into their portfolio management and reporting, enabling target setting and progress monitoring.
About SDI Asset Owner Platform
The Sustainable Development Investments Asset Owner Platform (SDI AOP) is responsible for the development and maintenance of the SDI taxonomy and guidance, SDI definitions and SDI classification methodology (www.sdi-aop.org). The SDI AOP consists of asset owners who invest in solutions which contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The SDI AOP is comprised of APG, AustralianSuper, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) and PGGM. Its underlying data are available to the market through analytics and index provider Qontigo and can be integrated into any investment process. The SDI AOP’s Classification product uses revenues associated with a company’s products and services as starting point to classify which companies qualify as SDI. Currently, the SDI AOP Classification dataset covers more than 9,000 entities across equities and fixed income.
About Qontigo — Optimizing Impact™
Qontigo is a leading global provider of innovative index, analytics and risk solutions that optimize investment impact. As the shift toward sustainable investing accelerates, Qontigo enables its clients—financial-products issuers, asset owners and asset managers—to deliver sophisticated and targeted solutions at scale to meet the increasingly demanding and unique sustainability goals of investors worldwide.
Qontigo’s solutions are enhanced by both our collaborative, customer-centric culture, which allows us to create tailored solutions for our clients, and our open architecture and modern technology that efficiently integrate with our clients’ processes.
Part of the Deutsche Börse Group, Qontigo was created in 2019 through the combination of Axioma, DAX and STOXX. Headquartered in Eschborn, Germany, Qontigo’s global presence includes offices in New York, London, Zug and Hong Kong.