This US outfit is using a novel framework to boost ESG investments: San Francisco-based asset manager Newday Impact Investing is using the Ecological Benefits Framework (EBF) to help investors gauge the environmental and impact of businesses, CNBC writes.

What is EBF? EBF — created by Douglas Gayeton, co-founder of US-based NGO The Lexicon — is a “shared market architecture” investment approach that takes into account six elements: air, water, biodiversity, healthy soils, equity, and carbon, which investors can use to determine the impacts of their investment. The purpose is to create a measurement, reporting, and verification library for investors, Newday CEO Doug Heske said.

Impact of the approach: Newday was the first finance institution to adopt EBF back in October, applying the framework across portfolios focused on ocean sustainability and blue carbon projects, CNBC writes. The framework has been applied by US-based healthcare company McKesson, one of Newday’s portfolio holdings, and is being used to help the firm meet several goals including pushing down its Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50% by 2032 from 2020 levels, as well as eliminating some 60 mn cardboard boxes annually, which is the equivalent to some 400k trees.

Plans to leverage AI and blockchain tech: Lexicon and Newday plan to integrate machine learning and blockchain technologies into the EBF investment construction methodology, which should help draw conclusions on ESG ventures from databases at an increased scale, the news outlet notes.

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