Beyond Advisors announces launch of new U.S. Vegan Climate Index

By Sarah Lizee

Olympia, Wash., May 25 – Beyond Advisors IC announced the launch of the U.S. Vegan Climate Index, which screens U.S. large cap stocks for vegan and environmental criteria.

The new index addresses over 90% of the sources of greenhouse gases plus the main causes of species extinction, ocean dead zones, water pollution, environmental pollution and habitat destruction, according to a press release.

The index is constructed primarily by excluding from the universe of the Solactive U.S. Large Cap index, a proxy for the S&P 500 index, any stocks whose activities are incompatible with a vegan and climate-conscious approach to investing.

Criteria for exclusion include animal testing, animal-derived products, animals in sport and entertainment, fossil fuel, energy production from fossil fuel, other environmental concerns, military and defense and tobacco.

The exclusions remove about 41% of the market capitalization of the Solactive U.S. Large Cap index, the company said.

“As compared with an exposure to the Solactive U.S. Large Cap index, an investor in this new index will avoid funding the slaughter of 13 animals a year for every $1,000 invested,” the company said in the release.

The rules-based index will be calculated by index provider Solactive and published on a real-time basis under the Bloomberg ticker “VEGAN.”

Beyond Advisors said the index, which is composed entirely of U.S. listed stocks, will form the basis of a forthcoming U.S.-listed exchange-traded fund launch, as well as ETFs and notes launched in other jurisdictions, subject to demand from investors.

The average market capitalization of the 308 companies currently listed on the index, which include Google, Facebook and Microsoft, is $255 billion, slightly higher than the Solactive U.S. Large Cap Index.

A proportion of net profits from licensing the index, data and the issue of financial instruments will go toward the Beyond Cruelty Foundation, a Swiss-based foundation whose donations will be put towards animal advocacy.

Beyond Advisors is a Geneva-based company that promotes the development of vegan investment products.

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