Mirova Launches Research Center & Announces Partnerships with Columbia University and ENSAE Paris
17 SEPT, 2024
By Jose Luis Palmer from RankiaPro Europe
Mirova, a specialist in sustainable investing and an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers, has launched the Mirova Research Center (MRC). The initiative aims to fund cutting-edge research on responsible investing, with two key academic partnerships: Columbia University’s Sustainable Investing Research Initiative (SIRI) and ENSAE Paris’ Impact Investing Chair.
Promoting Research and Innovation in Sustainable Finance
The Mirova Research Center is positioned as a hub for developing new methodologies and tools for responsible finance. Its strategic partnerships with universities across Europe, the U.S., and Asia aim to elevate Mirova’s contribution to academic research by supporting innovative projects with a societal focus, often overlooked by traditional academia.
Key objectives of the center include:
- Developing new indicators to assess environmental goals and just transition factors at the asset level.
- Exploring new methods to measure the impact of investment strategies on sustainable development goals (SDGs).
- Reflecting on the role of finance in the global economic transition.
Led by Mirova’s Sustainable Development Research department, the center will be supported by an advisory committee composed of experts from financial institutions and academia. Daily operations will be managed by Manuel Coeslier, Lead Climate & Environment Expert, and Thomas Giroux, Portfolio Manager at Mirova.
Academic Partnerships to Drive Innovation
Mirova’s partnership with Columbia University’s SIRI, directed by Caroline Flammer, will focus on promoting blended finance as a tool for financing projects with positive social and environmental impacts. The collaboration aims to advance academic research on best practices in blended finance while also facilitating dialogue between stakeholders from the public and private sectors.
Meanwhile, the partnership with ENSAE Paris’ Impact Investing Chair, supported by the ENSAE-ENSAI Foundation, seeks to maximize the positive impact of listed investment strategies. Research will explore shareholder engagement, net-zero alignment, and the reconciliation of environmental and social objectives, contributing to the broader understanding of sustainable finance.
Research and innovation have been the cornerstones of Mirova's development since its creation over a decade ago. In a context of increasing data, deepening rules of non-financial accounting, and controversies, sustainable finance must strengthen its theoretical and methodological framework. We aim to make the Mirova Research Center a hub for intellectual emulation and rich exchanges to contribute to the advancement of research on responsible finance, foster the emergence of new practices, and leverage this work to offer our clients increasingly innovative investment solutions.
Philippe Zaouati, CEO of Mirova
We are confident that the work conducted with the Impact Investing Chair at ENSAE will provide a robust theoretical framework and empirical analyses on which investors can rely to enhance their coordination capacity in the context of shareholder engagement for the transition. The second axis of the program should allow for a better understanding of the financial impact of biodiversity loss on portfolios and the reconciliation of ecological transition objectives with those of social justice.
Manuel Coeslier, Co-head of Mirova Research Center
These partnerships highlight Mirova’s strategic focus on building a robust framework for sustainable investment practices, aligning with the global transition towards a more responsible and resilient financial system.
