Green Homes Grant

Just a brief post to flag-up this new government scheme.

Earlier this year the Chancellor announced a package of green recovery measures worth around £3 billion. Two-thirds of this money will be allocated for energy efficiency home improvements. Starting today, all home-owners in England will be able to apply for vouchers worth up to £5,000 to cover two-thirds of the cost. Those on benefits such as universal credit or those eligible for housing benefit can apply for grants of up to £10,000 covering 100% of the cost.

What Measures are Covered?

To qualify for an award the homeowner (including private landlords) will need to apply for some form of insulation - loft, underfloor, solid wall or cavity wall - or a heat pump - air or ground source, or a solar water heating system. Other measures are then available such as double/triple glazing to replace single glazed windows, energy efficient doors or heating controls. 

Air Sourced Heat Pump

To provide initial help and advice to homeowners, the government have set up a free advice service - Simply Energy Advice

Unfortunately the scheme does not seem to cover the instalation of traditional solar PV panels or battery storage. I am hoping to move house later this year and I was thinking of adding solar so I was disappointed to see this was not included. However I will look into the heat pump option which looks interesting. This initiative should provide a boost to green businesses...including one of my portfolio holdings NIBE (UK).

The grant work should be completed by March 2021 but this date could be extended in the run up to the UK hosting COP 26 later that year.

Ceres Power - Full Year Results

Having had some rewarding returns from my holdings which focus on hydrogen such as AFC Energy and ITM Power, I decided to add Ceres Power to my portfolio earlier this year. Timing is not my strong point and the shares slumped from my purchase price of 427p down to 260p in March but have since seen a strong recovery and reached an all-time high point of 630p in July.

Ceres is another AIM-listed company. It is a world leader in low cost, next generation fuel cell technology which can facilitate the transition to zero-carbon emissions. The technology can be used in a variety of applications - transport, industry, data centres and home heating.

Fuel cell technology is already a core component of energy strategies in Japan, Korea, Germany and the US. Ceres are working with global leaders such as Bosch to embed their technology in mass market products. The stationary global fuel-cell market is estimated to be worth over $40bn by 2030.

In November 2019, the company announced its first zero-emission combined heat and power system designed exclusively for use with hydrogen fuel. The system can operate on all forms of hydrogen but the CHP technology running on hydrogen from renewables such as wind/solar offers a solution to tackling climate change and air pollution.

Expansion

In January 2020, German engineering giant Bosch increased its holding in Ceres from 4% to 18% citing their steel fuel cell technology as potentially the best in the business. Bosch say the market for the fuel-cell power station could be worth €20bn by 2030. Other partners include China's engines giant Weichai Power who hold a 20% equity stake.

The company has licence agreements signed up with four of the world's largest engineering and power companies including Japan's Miura and Doosan of S. Korea who are a global leader in the stationary fuel-cell market.

Solid Oxide Steel Fuel Cell

Results

The company has today released results for the full year to end June 2020 (link via Investegate).

Ceres is growing quickly. Generating income of just under £1m in 2015, they have increased revenues significantly in recent years. Over the past 12 months revenues increased by 21% to £19.9m (2019 £16.4m). Obviously the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted over the last quarter however the full onsite team returned in May and a record number of units were produced and shipped to customers in June.

However, although growing rapidly, they are yet to convert the potential into profits for shareholders. For the last full year to June 2020 the loss was -£6.5m compared to a loss of -£5.9m the previous year. This is partly due to increased investment into electrolysis and the manufacture of green hydrogen.

The company has a strong balance sheet with no debt and cash in the bank of £108 million.

Commenting on the results, CEO Phil Caldwell said:

"The urgency for climate action continues to drive the global demand for clean energy technologies, and our strategy of licensing to global partners, with a leading position in their products and markets, continues to be highly successful. "Despite the disruption from Covid we have delivered a solid set of results, with continued revenue growth and sector leading margins.  This is driven by good progress with our customer programmes and increased manufacturing output thanks to the hard work of the entire Ceres team.

"Trading since the period end has remained strong with good commercial progress with our partners globally.  Bosch has now installed prototype products of its 10kW system utilising Ceres' technology at five locations in Germany while, despite an initial delay in the early part of 2020 due to the pandemic, good progress is now being made to validate Ceres' technology for transportation applications with Weichai's SOFC team in China.

"These developments, combined with the opportunities from our new, long term growth areas of electrolysis for hydrogen, mean that Ceres is very well positioned to build on the strong momentum generated during the period as we look to play our part in delivering clean energy technology to enable a net zero future."

Huge Potential

Whilst there are many companies in the proton membrane fuel cell sector, global companies are signing up solely with Ceres in the solid-oxide fuel cell department where the company is a global market leader.

The company doesn't want to focus on fuel cell manufacturing but rather a technology licensing company working closely with a range of partners who are looking to adapt their business' and address the huge challenges posed by climate change.

Analysts at Berenberg have likened the companies licensing model to ARM Holdings whose RISC technology became the default during the smartphone revolution of the past decade. The broker suggests they could reach 40% to 50% operating margins and generate revenues of £800m each year from licensing agreements with their partners over the coming decade.

Share Price past 12 months

I picked up my initial holding for my ISA at the price of 427p and the current price has taken a dip following the results and stands at 540p which gives a market cap. of £950m. I will look to add on any further price weakness in the coming months.

As ever, this article is merely a record of my personal investment decisions and should not be regarded as an endorsement or recommendation... investing in smaller companies can be rewarding but is higher risk - always DYOR!

Plug Power - Portfolio Addition

Plug Power is a US-based leader in the field of hydrogen fuel-cells. The company has been around for 20 years and was one of the first to commercialise hydrogen fuel-cell technologies and establish markets for various applications. It has developed a range of scalable hydrogen solutions for both mobile and stationary applications. Some high profile customers include the supermarket chains Carrefour and Walmart, BMW, IKEA and also Amazon.

The company manufactures fuel-cell engines for e-mobility and provide back-up hydrogen infrastructure which provides sustainable power solutions for companies looking to transition towards a more  low carbon business model. Applications include fleet vehicles, small-scale industrial robotics, power for data centres and also UAVs/drones.

Expansion

Plug is looking to expand its operations in Europe following the decision by the EU to implement its Green Deal which includes an investment of  $210 billion in green hydrogen over the coming decade.

Earlier this year the company acquired United Hydrogen and Giner ELX for $123 million which will enable PLUG to produce, store and deliver more hydrogen and provide opportunities to supply clean energy solutions in the manufacture of ammonia, concrete, steel and computer chips. This could be a really big deal for reducing climate emissions.

The finance was provided by the issue of a 5 year green bond - a first in the US.

Green

Plug has recently agreed with Brookfield Renewable to energise its green hydrogen production. This will enable Plug to produce 10 tons of clean liquid hydrogen per day.

"We are excited to be partnering with Brookfield Renewable, a global leader in renewable generation, and anticipate opportunities to build upon this relationship in the coming years," stated Plug Power CEO Andy Marsh in the press release announcing the deal. He also noted that "this marks important progress in our steady march to achieve our overall hydrogen strategy of building green liquid hydrogen generation facilities with strategic partners in the U.S. and globally thereafter."

Over the next few years the company plans to become the largest green hydrogen player in the US and globally thereafter!

It has been on my watchlist for some time but what sparked my interest this week was a project to work on the development of a hydrogen fuel-cell airplane in conjunction with Universal Hydrogen. They plan to have a commercial plane in the air by 2024. This could pave the way for larger projects to decarbonise the skies. Early days but exciting prospects!

One year price chart (click to enlarge)

The share price has risen quickly this year from under $4 at the start of 2020 to reach a high of $14 at the end of August. My initial tranch of shares were purchased in my Sipp at the price of $11.40 and currently make up just 2% of my green portfolio.

As ever, this article is merely a record of my personal investment decisions and should not be regarded as an endorsement or recommendation - always DYOR!

Bluefield Solar - Full Year Results

Bluefield Solar (BSIF) was added to my SIPP portfolio in March 2019 and I topped up during the Covid sell-off earlier this year. It's initial focus was purely on solar power in the UK but in July the Company resolved to broaden its focus to include up to 25% in other forms of renewables such as wind and also energy storage and also expand overseas. They have recognised that storage of renewable energy will become a vital part of the transformation towards net zero emissions over the coming years and I certainly think this is a smart move.

 

I would think they will now be looking at onshore wind opportunities and storage which is a sensible move and should add value. Indeed, they have recruited an experienced professional in wind to become investment director so the direction of travel seems clear. It is currently one of the largest solar operations in Europe with net assets under management of around £436 million and generating 470MW of electricity is sufficient to power 150,000 homes.

 

Approximately 60% of solar assets are covered by the old subsidy scheme which provides a guaranteed return for 20 years from the date of connection to the grid. The other 40% have rolling power purchase agreements which generally last for 3 years and are then renewed.

 

Results

 

The company has today issued full year results to end June (link via Investegate). Underlying earnings per share increased by 9.2% to 12.03p and the share price total return including dividends was just 4.7% which is quite a drop compared to the return of 19.1% last year.

The company pays quarterly dividends and will pay out a total of 7.9p for the year which gives a yield of 5.9% based on the current share price of 134p. However, the board have now de-linked dividend increases from RPI which suggests the falling energy prices have become a concern for the future.

The total annualised return for shareholders since launch in 2013 has been 8.7% p.a.

 

Chairman John Rennocks said: 

"We have added consideration of a prudent level of non-solar renewable technologies following the approval of the change the asset mandate and are excited by the opportunities we are exploring in this extended pipeline.

 

We have also continued to actively assess secondary solar asset opportunities and were pleased to conclude the acquisition of 13.6MWp of assets earlier in the year and of 15 solar plants totalling 64.2MWp in August 2020. These investments, totalling £120 million, were financed from increased debt facilities, bringing our borrowings level to where the Board believes is appropriate in the range of 40-50% of GAV. We continue to actively explore other asset opportunities in our pipeline.

 

These acquisitions will underpin our objective to sustain market leading earnings and dividend payments in the years ahead. They enable us to build on the excellent asset performance which has contributed to our ability to convert high levels of irradiation into generation and revenues".

 

Storage

The ability to store excess renewable energy will be the key to a full transition on our path towards net zero by 2050. The government have recently relaxed the rules to encourage far more storage capacity which should be good for the likes of Bluefield. They have excess capacity and spare land which could lead to productive partnerships with storage providers subject to planning considerations.

 

Energy Pricing

According to forecasts from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, UK electricity prices are forecast to decline by 4% per year to around £19/MWh by 2040 from its current price of £45. These lower energy prices are having an impact on the company's net asset value. Obviously this has no impact on those assets which are covered by the long term ROCs and feed-in tariffs backed by the government but it will affect the subsidy-free assets.

The recent fall in wholesale energy prices has obviously put pressure on the Company's model and NAV has fallen. Solar+storage and wind+storage can replace the baseload capacity previously provided by coal and now by gas. Storage is essential to manage the intermittent nature of renewable energy - the wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine...especially at night!

 

Future Expansion

 

The trust's portfolio has been fairly stable for the past couple of years with 87 solar 'farms' located mainly across southern England. The UK governments subsidy for renewable infrastructure has now ceased (short-sighted imo) however, the cost of solar has fallen dramatically - 50% reduction over the past five years - and this should provide opportunities for growth.

 

The company are currently looking for opportunities to increase assets and a number of potential sites are currently under consideration to support the next phase of growth.

 

BSIF are in the process of increasing the life expectancy of its solar assets from 25 years to 40 years subject to planning. Successful negotiations have been completed on the majority of existing assets. The boost to asset appreciation over the past year means the discount has been maintained and the shares are currently trading at a premium to NAV of around 20%.

 

My holding in Bluefield Solar accounts for around 5% of my 'green' portfolio which has been gradually building over the past year. I feel comfortable with this and will continue to hold and roll up my quarterly dividends within my SIPP and ISA. I look forward to seeing how the management deal with expansion of the portfolio and whether debt increases but for now it can return to the bottom drawer.

As ever, this article is merely a record of my personal investment decisions and should not be regarded as an endorsement or recommendation - always DYOR!

The Importance of Scope Emissions

All businesses impact on the environment - some such as oil & gas companies much more than others such as green energy companies. In order to better understand the impact of greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide, they are broken down into three categories - Scope 1, 2 and 3. 

This system was introduced in 2001 by the World Resources Institute as part of their Greenhouse Gas Protocol designed to create a universal method for all companies to measure and report on emissions related to their business. As climate change rises up the political agenda, the reports of global companies are more closely scrutinised for disclosure of carbon emissions.

Scope 1 include all the direct emissions directly under the control of the business including the types of fuel used on site, the emissions from any motor fleet and air conditioning systems etc.

Scope 2 include indirect emissions arising from the electricity or other energy purchased by the business.

Finally, Scope 3 emissions are all the remaining indirect greenhouse gas emissions which the company does not control. These are usually the largest proportion of CO2 emissions associated with the business and include all emissions from the supply chain of a business as well as end users of the products made by the business.

With the public becoming increasingly concerned about environmental issues, there is now much more emphasis on sustainability and therefore scrutiny of an company's carbon emissions - especially scope 3. 

Many of the world's leading companies are pledged to reduce their carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement and even the big oil majors are starting to address their scope 3 emissions and aim for net zero by 2050. BP have recently pledged to become net zero under the new leadership of Bernard Looney, likewise Repsol announced a major shift last December

I was interested to hear that the world's largest company Apple with a market cap. of $2 trillion - larger than the combined value of all FTSE 100 companies - has recently declared it will become carbon neutral by 2030. It's own energy consumption is already covered entirely by renewables but its new commitment will extend to its suppliers and end users - i.e. scope 3 emissions. This is a big deal and will likely have far-reaching implications down the line.

Most of these emissions come from the outsourcing of manufacturing, mainly to companies in the Far East and the task is to ensure that all these supply companies use 100% renewable energy and use renewable materials. This is quite a task and Apple have created an entire team dedicated to helping its suppliers plug into clean energy.

"Businesses have a profound opportunity to help build a more sustainable future, one born of our common concern for the planet we share," said Apple CEO Tim Cook ... "Climate action can be the foundation for a new era of innovative potential, job creation, and durable economic growth."

Therefore, these large global companies can have a huge impact on the transition to a net zero world - possibly more so than individual governments.

I do not hold Apple as a stand-alone company in my portfolio but do hold it indirectly via my technology investment trusts - Allianz and Polar Capital. I do however hold some large companies, the likes of Microsoft and Google in my portfolio and I have now had the opportunity to check their Scope 3 climate change ambition.

Microsoft

The company has also pledged to become carbon neutral by 2030 but also to go further and remove all the carbon emitted since it was founded in 1975. In July the company updated its Supplier Code to ensure all suppliers report their emissions data. This will help Microsoft to work with their supplier companies around the world to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and bring them more into line with Microsoft's goals on achieving net zero.

All data centers and campuses will be powered by 100% renewable energy by 2025 (scope 2).

Current market cap. is $1.5 trillion.

(click image to enlarge)

Google

The company has been carbon neutral since 2007 and in 2017 they matched 100% of their energy consumption (scope 2) from renewable energy.

Google is the world's largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy - currently around 3.5GW. It has a market cap. of $1 trillion.

This week they have pledged to become carbon-free by 2030

For the past 3 years they have matched annual electricity usage with renewable energy purchase. However this new policy is far more ambitious and will involve round-the-clock clean energy for all data centers and campuses. Electricity sourcing (scope 2) will be decarbonised over the coming decade.

Google works directly with over 2,000 suppliers in 70 countries. Many of these countries still operate largely on an energy grid based on fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. Google will deploy 5GW of clean energy across the supply chain which will involve $5 billion invested in new wind, solar and other clean energy solutions.

Facebook ($750bn) have also pledged to use 100% renewable energy by the end of this year and will aim for it's entire value chain to become net zero by 2030 to include all suppliers and end users. Amazon ($1.5 trillion) are now lagging behind with its pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2040.

Conclusion

I think the Covid pandemic and the increasing climate change events such as the devastating wildfires that hit Australia last year and are currently affecting the west coast of the US are starting to challenge the 'business as usual' thinking for governments, companies and the general public. Clearly some big changes are needed to move to a more sustainable economy for the long term and these changes need to be implemented with some degree of urgency.

I believe a big part of that change will be influenced by just a few individuals at the top of some of the world's biggest businesses - Apple, Microsoft, Google, Tesla etc. Now they have committed to net zero carbon emissions, the snowball effect will influence other large companies and policy makers and also cascade down the chain to other businesses who have a relationship with these top global companies.

Hopefully, within a decade, the world will look quite different to how it looks today - a slowing of global warming with the potential to keep within the 1.5C limit recommended by the IPCC, more electric and hydrogen fuel cell transport, cleaner air quality, a ten-fold increase in renewable energy with a corresponding reduction in the use of fossil fuels, our banks and insurers declining support for the polluting industries and diverting their businesses strategy to support cleaner, more sustainable models.

In 2010, climate scientist, environmentalist and writer James Lovelock - most famous for the Gaia Theory - said humans were too stupid to prevent climate change impacting our lives over the coming decades. He seems to be proved right so far but let's hope over the next decade he turns out to be wrong - otherwise it could be game over.

As ever, this article is merely a record of my personal investment decisions and should not be regarded as an endorsement or recommendation - always DYOR!

BG Positive Change Fund - Update

It's now around two years since I started to move my portfolio away from fossil fuels and into more climate-friendly alternatives. One of the first additions to my green portfolio was this fund from Baillie Gifford so time to update on progress.

Many of the ethical and socially responsible funds use a simple screen to avoid the so called 'sin stocks' such as tobacco, arms trade, pornography and environmental polluters for example. This is a good start but I believe the industry needs to go further and apply a positive screening process to identify those companies which are making an effort to tackle some of the global challenges we face in a positive way.

Baillie Gifford launched their Positive Change fund in January 2017. It is designed to contribute towards a more sustainable and inclusive world for future generations and also provide a decent return for investors. This managed fund aims to outperform the global index by at least 2% over any 5 year rolling period.

Performance since launch  (click to enlarge)

The return since launch has been 184%. Over the 6 months to end June 2020, the fund has returned an impressive 35.7% compared to just 0.8% by the All World Index. Top holding Tesla (9.5%) will have been responsible for a significant part of this performance but also there have been good contributions from biotech company Moderna which was the first to start trialling a Covid vaccine and also Teladoc, a telemedicine company which has seen big demand for remote consultations during the global pandemic.

A new addition to the portfolio is Beyond Meat - a plant-based sustainable alternative to meat and one I have been considering for my portfolio.

All holdings are there because their products and/or services address a global or environmental challenge and are improving the status quo. Here's their 2019 Impact Report

When analysing a company, the management team assess the investment case first and then go on to apply the positive screening. The company must intend to provide a positive change rather than it being incidental to what they do.

Co-manager Kate Fox believes the financial community will play a crucial role in creating a sustainable and inclusive world for future generations.

The fund is invested globally - USA (46%), Europe (26%), Emerging Markets (17%) and Asia Pacific (10%). The fund is expected to remain fairly concentrated with 30 to 40 holdings.

Some top holdings include Tesla, Illumina, Umicore, NIBE, Orsted and Alphabet (Google).

Ongoing charges are 0.60% plus transaction costs which add a further 0.10%.

For me, the holy grail of investing is a positive return relative to the market for the degree of equity/bond risk combined with a positive contribution towards tackling climate change. After nearly three years it's still early days for this fund but it's certainly showing a lot of promise. If it can deliver a return of over 20% p.a. on average and at the same time support business that are part of solving the problems, what's not to like?

Ethical/green investing will not solve all the problems associated with climate change but I believe it will have a part to play. As they say...the future is green or is not at all...

As ever, this article is merely a record of my personal investment decisions and should not be regarded as an endorsement or recommendation - always DYOR!

Allianz Technology Trust - Portfolio Addition

I recently reported on the results for Polar Capital Tech Trust and the recent sell-off in this sector has provided an opportunity to add a second string to my bow. I am thinking that the Covid pandemic has highlighted the increasing reliance we all place on technology and the trends which have been building for several years are likely to continue as the Covid situation recedes. I have therefore decided to increase the tech allocation in my portfolio.

This trust was established in 1995 to give investors a chance to gain exposure to the tech sector. Although the trust is UK-listed, since 2007 it has been managed by a team based in San Francisco and close to Silicon Valley, home to many of the world's big tech companies.

The strategy is to identify a number of themes such as cloud computing, security, e-commerce and electric vehicles for example and hold some of the best companies within these sectors over the longer term.

Cloud-based cybersecurity

Some current top ten portfolio holdings include Apple (6%), Microsoft (3.5%), Crowdstrike (3.5%), Tesla (3.4%) and Zoom (3.0%). The trust has a good performance record with returns of 30% in the current year to date, 25% last year, 41% in 2018, 42% in 2017 and 15.8% in 2016. It is actually the top performing investment trust over both the past 5 years and also 10 years - ahead of the likes of Scottish Mortgage, Biotech Growth and Linsell Train.

Commenting on recent half-year results, investment manager Walter Price said:

"In many cases, several underway trends have been turbocharged due to the Covid-19 environment and we expect the leaders of these trends to benefit for multiple years. A few examples include the transformation of retail to omnichannel and e-commerce, autos to electric transportation, entertainment to subscription and video-on-demand delivery over the internet, and company infrastructure to cloud first.

Supply chain disruptions have exposed vulnerabilities with having one geographic center for production, and we expect to see increased investment in diversification of production after this crisis. The trend toward more automation in production and distribution facilities will be accelerated. The world will not be the same on the other side of this pandemic, and we believe technological innovation will be the driving force of the necessary transformations for businesses and consumers".

...and concluded:

"We are in a period of rapid change, where the importance of technology is key to the prosperity of most industries. Looking ahead, this environment is likely to provide attractive growth opportunities in many technology stocks".

 

YTD Performance v Polar Capital Technology Trust
(click to enlarge)

Obviously it helps that I no longer require income from my investments as this trust is all about growth and does not pay a dividend. However, as I have pointed out in the past, it is possible to take 'income' from capital appreciation. For example, selling down shares to provide 4% income from a trust which is growing at an average of over 20% each year should not be too difficult.

The recent 15% dip in the tech sector has provided an opportunity to add this trust to my portfolio at the price of £22.50. I expect there will be further volatility over the coming weeks and months and may well add to my initial purchase in due course. This addition takes my allocation to 10% including my individual holdings of Microsoft, Google and Tesla and I would like to increase this to 20% over the coming year.

More on this following the full year results next Spring. In the meantime I just have to hope the managers don't add SpaceX to the portfolio!

As ever, this article is merely a record of my personal investment decisions and should not be regarded as an endorsement or recommendation - always DYOR!

Mid Wynd Trust - Full Year Results

Mid Wynd International is a theme-based global investment trust. The strategy is to hold around 55 - 70 holdings between 8 to 10 themes. Current themes include Automation/Robots 13%, Emerging Market Consumer 10%, Tourism 0%, Healthcare & Immunology 11%, Online Services 26%, Low Carbon World 7%, Screen Time 9% and Scientific Equipment 10%.

The management team led by Simon Edelsten have built a portfolio of high-quality holdings which focus on a number of trends which offer the prospect of long term growth.

The shares were added to my portfolio in April 2018 at the price of 474p.

Results

Mid Wynd have today announced results for the full year to end June 2020 (link via Investegate). This has been another good year with share price total return up 9.1% compared to the All Country World Index 5.2%. By comparison the FTSE All Share Index fell by -16.7% over the year to end June.

The largest contribution to the outperformance have been from holdings in Amazon, Microsoft and Barrick Gold. Over the past 5 years, net assets have increased by 117%.

3 Yr Performance v FTSE All Share Index
(click to enlarge)

I acquired this trust mainly for growth but it does offer a yield of around 1.0%. The total dividend for the full year will be increased by 5% to 6.12p (2019 5.83p) which is covered by revenues of 7.38p

The trust includes climate/low carbon as one of their themes and I was disappointed to see that they have reduced the weighting over the year ...including Orsted. The managers are clearly climate-aware and avoid coal, fossil fuel stocks and the mining sector which together account for 12% of the global index.

One of their themes was tourism which is not so climate-friendly and I was pleased to see the managers have decided to drop this theme and reduced exposure from 5% to 0% over the past 12 months.  

Here's an extract on sustainable investing from their report :

"Over recent years a number of investment houses have made much of the sustainability of their investments or how their funds score on measures of environmental, social and governance factors. As we aim for longer term investment success, we have always included these factors in our selection process. Our interpretation of the factors is based on common sense and real-life situations, rather than any tick list or one-size-fits-all screen. As an example, we think that air travel may remain essential in large Asian countries while the environmental damage of cheap flights may become unacceptable in Europe.

We are not, however, looking to change the world, nor do we presume to have an ethical code that all would follow. Our aim is to invest in companies which prosper without damaging society or the environment something that is likely to make profitability more sustainable. We believe that this is an aim that we share with our investors and that this perspective is, and has always been, central to the management of a successful Investment Trust".

The share price is currently 645p so a rise of 36% since purchase plus dividends

Steady progress I think. I would like to see the low carbon theme back above 10% and have passed on some thoughts to the managers on this but I have my own green portfolio to offset some of the perceived shortcomings in my funds. For now, this can return to the bottom drawer.

As ever, this article is merely a record of my personal investment decisions and should not be regarded as an endorsement or recommendation - always DYOR!