Sustainability as a business philosophy and strategy

The firm was founded in 2005 on the principle that infrastructure investment should be long-term, responsible, and sustainable, with clear benefits to local communities. And, on the belief that the proper qualification of Environment, Social and Governance (“ESG”) and impact is essential to effective stakeholder management.

Meridiam has since developed robust ESG principles to include not only relevant global standards, such as the UN Principles of Responsible Investment (“UN PRI”) and the Equator Principles, but also to consider the ESG criteria of leading Development Finance Institutions (“DFIs”) (including the European Investment Bank (“EIB”), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (“EBRD”) and the International Finance Corporation (“IFC”) Standards). These principles form the core of Meridiam’s sustainable development charter and are integrated throughout our investment and portfolio management process.

Our track record

By acquiring the status of certified benefit corporation, Meridiam went further in formalizing its sustainability strategy. Our  mission “delivering sustainable infrastructure that improves the quality of people’s lives” is now enshrined in its by-laws, confirming its commitment to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (“UN SDGs” or “SDGs”) and a rigorous evaluation of the impact of our investments.

Our five pillars

Our five strategic pillars are:

  1. ”Deliver resilient infrastructure and develop resilient cities”
  2. ”Accelerate energy transition”
  3. ”Avoid & reduce emissions”
  4. ”Promote good work conditions, inclusion, diversity & gender equality”
  5. ”Protect & enhance biodiversity”

 

These pillars shape our organisation and our investment approach. They align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and with our mission to improve the quality of people’s lives. What stands us apart is our pure focus on creating public infrastructure with a positive economic, social and environmental impact across Europe, Africa and the Americas.

Different countries and regions have a wide variety of social and environmental priorities. And every infrastructure project serves a different purpose – from the provision of quality healthcare to efficient mass transportation, or access to reliable, renewable energy. Each needs an individual approach linked to an overarching strategy.

Our pillars help turn our mission into deliverable goals, enabling us to target our initiatives and measure our firm’s impact on a global basis. They keep our sustainability strategy focused and help us identify ways to further improve our assets and our organisation

Deliver resilient infrastructure & develop sustainable cities

Projects in operation

Improve current consolidated SDGs 9 & 11 score from 2.6 to 3.1

Projects in construction

Improve current consolidated SDGs 9 & 11 score from 2.4 to 2.9

Accelerate energy transition

Projects in operation

SDG 7 score from 2.7 to 3.2

Avoid & reduce emissions

For MIAF

Carbon neutrality between induced emissions and avoided emissions (per M€ invested)

For other funds

Portfolio temperature nearing 2°C

Promote good work conditions, inclusion, diversity & gender equality

SDG 5

Improve current consolidated score of gender-related performance indicators in the Sustainability Assessment from 61 to 63

SDG 8

Improve current score from 3,3 to 3,5

SDG 17

Improve current score from 2.4 to 3

Protect & enhance biodiversity

Improve current consolidated SDGs 14 & 15 score from 2.3 to 2.8

Meridiam’s Mission Committee reviewed the 3-year mission objectives end of March 2023, and welcomed the achievement of the objectives on the selected SDGs.
Meridiam’s overall governance score based on our sustainability assessment performed by Moody’s improved, and reached 65 (versus an objective of 70), illustrating our strong commitments and concrete achievements on ESG and sustainability. The agency underlined that we display a strong capacity and willingness to integrate ESG factors into our strategy, operations, and risk management, with advanced results achieved on managing risks across operational efficiency, reputation, legal security and human capital.

Meridiam’s responsible investment approach has received ISO certification every year since 2012 and a 2020 assessment by the UN PRI scored Meridiam’s overall approach to ESG as A+ (29/30) and its approach to infrastructure-related issues as A+ (30/30)[1].

Further, Meridiam’s corporate social responsibility approach has been regularly assessed as Advanced by V:E Moody’s (ex Vigeo Eiris)[2], one of Europe’s leading non-financial rating agencies and a specialised subsidiary of Moody’s. In 2020 V:E Moody’s confirmed Meridiam Advanced status on the basis of a sustainability rating with a score of 64/100.

Finally, Meridiam has a dedicated set of tools to measure the impact of all its assets including a proprietary SDG impact tool called Simpl., a Carbon Footprint Assessment and the 2-Infra challenge (to measure the alignment of portfolios with the 2-degree trajectory[3]).

Our delivery

Over 15-year track record of delivering robust, long-term and sustainable infrastructure

Meridiam invested more than $80 billion to date and currently manages over 120 essential public infrastructure that responds to the critical needs of communities, in three core sectors: sustainable mobility, innovative low carbon solution, critical public services (as of April  2023).

Meridiam raised several funds, with complementary approaches :

  • Sustainable and resilient Infrastructure: Meridiam Infrastructure (MI), Meridiam Infrastructure Europe II (MIE II), MIE III, Meridiam Sustainable Infrastructure Europe IV (MSIE IV), Meridiam Transition, Meridiam Infrastructure North America II (MINA II), MINA III, Meridiam Infrastructure Africa Fund (MIAF), MIAF II, The Urban Resilience Fund (TURF), Meridiam Sustainable Water and Waste Fund (MSWWF), managed accounts and co-investments.
  • Sustainable SMEs: Green Impact Growth Fund (GIGF)

The portfolio represents in total over $20 billion of Assets Under Management (AUM as of April 2023).

 

Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR)

All our new funds (two Successor funds for a total of € 2.8 billion ($3.4 billion), two new products for a total of €440 million (GIGF and TURF addressing respectively fast growing SMEs involved in transition economy and urban resilient infrastructure), and a new dedicated fund: Meridiam Sustainable Waste & Water Fund to acquire the New-Suez) are fully aligned with the firm’s sustainability objectives and qualify as Article 9 under the new EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), the highest sustainable classification in Europe.

Meridiam demonstrated its ability to control and mitigate risks associated with greenfield assets, in particular:

  • Development risks as demonstrated by the Team’s high success rate
  • Construction risks, completing projects on time and on budget
  • Political risks, engaging all stakeholders of a project, focusing on essential infrastructure that serves a critical need of the local community, and through rigorous management of ESG issues and pro-active engagement with SDGs
  • Environmental and social risks, with a rigorous and stringent approach to sustainable investing over the long term.

Our expertise

We have deep development expertise across a stable, experienced and local team.

Meridiam’s team, which comprises over 380 people, has extensive experience in developing and managing infrastructure assets, as well as supporting the scale-up of impactful SMEs.

The majority of senior management and the investment team has a background in engineering. It reflects Meridiam’s investment philosophy of delivering value to its stakeholders primarily through the creation of new and sustainable infrastructure as the key driver of Meridiam’s value creation and portfolio management strategy.

 

 

Sources

[1] For further details please refer to the UN PRI website. Meridiam’s full assessment report is available on request. Meridiam’s transparency report is available online here

[2] V:E Moody’s (ex Vigeo Eiris)has carried out several audits, the last of which was conducted end of 2017, on the basis of the ISO 26000 standard. The Advanced rating awarded to Meridiam in 2017 reflects the maturity of its organisation. A Sustainability Performance Review is currently being carried out, which results will be made available to Meridiam in the course of 2020.

[3] The global community’s accepted limitation of temperature growth to avoid significant and potentially catastrophic changes to the planet.

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