FII Institute Announces Strategic Investment in Timbeter

The Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute hosted a London summit about ESG in Emerging Markets, involving world leaders, global CEOs, international investors, thought leaders and heads of sustainability, where:

• It unveiled a new Inclusive ESG™ Framework and Scoring Methodology to inform and accelerate ESG investments in emerging  n economies;
• It launched an ESG White Paper calling on investors, governments and companies in emerging markets to raise their game; and
• It announced an investment of €500,000 in Timbeter, a leading green tech company.

The new Inclusive ESG™ Framework and Scoring Methodology aims to give unbiased ratings for companies in emerging markets who currently receive less than 10% of ESG flows, despite being home to nearly 90% of the world's population and roughly half of global GDP. ESG rating agencies are one of the main barriers to increasing investment in emerging markets (EMs).

Currently, mainstream rating agencies employ KPIs not relevant to EMs. The existing frameworks focus too much on disclosure and ignore year-over-year performance improvement.

The new framework, developed with the support of Ernst & Young (EY), values performance improvement over time more than breadth of disclosure, emphasizing sectoral challenges rather than country risks, to ensure fair competition between companies in both emerging markets and developed markets.

The FII Institute is putting its money where its mouth is by investing €500,000 in Timbeter, a leading green tech company specialising in timber measurement. 

To increase supply chain transparency, sustainability and certification, in line with ESG processes, Timbeter provides an AI-driven photo-optics application that accurately determines the quantities of logs in an area with precise length and diameter. This technology is key to a more proactive management of forests and a more sustainable sector.

Richard Attias, CEO of the FII Institute, said, "Central to our work at FII Institute is to increase awareness about the weaknesses in current ESG standards and their impact on global sustainability prospects, and to advocate for an inclusive and equitable application of ESG through driving real action by key players globally."