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Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) is an international investment company with a specific focus on sustainability investments. The company is based in Zurich, Switzerland and considers economic, environmental and social criteria in its investment strategies. In addition to asset management, the company has an indexes and private equity portion of the business. They have a series of products based on themes such as water, energy, climate and healthy living. In 2001, SAM became the first carbon neutral company in Switzerland.

History
The company was founded by Reto Ringger in 1995 as the world’s first investment company focused solely on sustainability themes. The headquarters are in Zurich, Switzerland and SAM has approximately 100 employees. Its parent company is the Dutch based Robeco, which is a subsidiary of Rabobank.

Timeline
1995 Reto Ringger founds SAM

1999 SAM and Dow Jones launch the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes

2001 First global sustainable water fund launched (SAM Sustainable Water Fund)

2001 SAM becomes first Carbon Neutral company in Switzerland

2003 Sustainable energy fund launched

2006 Acquired by Robeco

2009 Integration of Robeco SAM Clean Tech Private Equity at SAM’s headquarters

Operations
The company’s total assets amount to about USD 14.8 billion.

The three main areas of business are: asset management, indexes and private equity. In 1999, SAM and Dow Jones & Company came together to produce the world’s first sustainability indexes known as the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI). The Indexes provided by SAM and DJSI include broad, blue chip, single theme and multi-theme indexes. Many major global companies, such as Shell, Akzo Nobel and TNT N.V., have recently decided to link the top-management remuneration to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.

SAM houses the clean tech private equity team of its parent company Robeco, which is a member of Rabobank. Robeco SAM Clean Tech Private Equity is run by Andrew Musters.

For the asset management business they have strategies based on major sustainability trends such as water and energy as well as core products such as a sustainable global active fund and a sustainable europe active fund. The SAM Sustainable Water Fund received a lot of recognition as it was one of the first of its kind to be launched in 2001.

The company also has an in-house research team that performs sustainability assessments of major companies. Within this respect, SAM has developed a large sustainability database as they annually assess over 2,000 of the largest listed companies based on sustainability criteria.

Company Sustainability Assessment
SAM annually assesses around 2,000 of the world's largest companies over 58 market sectors and determines their respective sustainability rating. The assessment examines companies based on environmental social and corporate governance factors (ESG factors), which serve as the primary basis for determining a company's level of sustainability and subsequent global impact. Some of the sectors they look at include: airlines, communication technology, beverages, auto parts & tires, waste & disposal services, and electricity.

Based on the results from this assessment, SAM produces a "Sustainability Yearbook" in which they announce the companies that have been ranked as sustainability "sector leaders" and/or "sector movers". They also give a small number of companies a classification of gold, silver or bronze to recognize their added commitment to sustainability issues. Sector leaders in the past have included: adidas AG, BMW, Nokia, Panasonic, PepsiCo, Pirelli, and Rolls-Royce Group plc. Sector movers in the past have included: Air France, Fiat, Hormel, IBM, Mitsubishi, and Starbucks.

Awards
In 2001, SAM and Sustainable Performance Group (SPG) founded the sustainability leadership award. The award ran from 2001-2010 and was presented annually to a chosen sustainability leader and pioneer.

It was founded under the belief that individuals who place a great importance and effort to promote sustainability in the workplace should be publicly recognized.

Previous award winners include:

2001 Ray Anderson (Founder and CEO Interface Inc.)

2002 Dr. Michael Otto (Chairman of the Board of Directors, Otto) and José Maria Figueres Olsen (former President of Costa Rica, founder of Costa Rica Foundation for Sustainable Development)

2003 Tessa Tennant (Executive Chair, AsrIA)

2004 Antony Burgmans (Chairman Unilever) and Robin Cornelius (Founder and CEO of Switcher SA)

2005 Lars Rebien Sørensen (Chairman and CEO of Novo Nordisk) and Bob Welsh (CEO, VicSuper)

2006 Travis Engen (Alcan) and Jeremy Leggett (solarcentury)

2007 Yogesh Chander Deveshwar (Chairman of ITC Ltd.) and David Johnston (Founder and President of What's Working Inc.)

2008 Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia Inc.) and L. Hunter Lovins (Natural Capitalism Inc. / Natural Capitalism Solutions)

2009 Peter Bakker (CEO of TNT) and Dr. Ashok Gadgil (professor for environmental technology at the University of California, Berkeley)