Tackling Resource
Efficiency Challenges
Tackling Resource
Efficiency Challenges
09/2014
RobecoSAM AG
www.robecosam.com
The challenges facing our modern world may seem daunting, but
RobecoSAM continues to identify and invest in companies that are applying
ingenuity and innovation to maximize our global resource productivity.
Executive Summary
Resource efficiency: an attractive investment theme
Despite entering an era of unparalleled resource pressure, RobecoSAM believes that human ingenuity and
innovation will enable the global economy to adapt to
resource scarcity.
Companies that pioneer innovative ways to use resources more efficiently – and facilitate the substitution of
supply-constrained resources with intelligent alternatives – will gain a long-term competitive advantage.
As a specialist provider of thematic and sustainable
investment products, it is our business to know who
these game changing companies are and to invest in
the resource efficiency solutions that deliver the best
return, for investors and society as a whole.
Benefits of investing in resource efficiency include:
•A highly attractive investment theme supported by fundamental, long-term drivers
•Access to resource productivity gain opportunities estimated to be worth up to USD 2.9 trillion by 20301
•Exposure to long-term global trends and growth at attractive valuations through high-conviction
portfolios
•A natural complement and diversifier to mainstream investments
•Investments in solutions and solution providers to the resource challenges we face in the areas of water,
energy, climate, agribusiness, materials and infrastructure
•Enables investors to mobilize capital to preserve resources critical to economic growth, thereby
generating a positive impact on the environment and society
1http://www.mckinsey.com/
insights/energy_resources
_materials/mobilizing_
for_a_resource_revolution
Tackling Resource Efficiency Challenges • 1
Global Challenges:
Global Opportunities
Megatrends are shaping the world
While our planet is a closed and moderately stable system, its surface and atmosphere could not be more dynamic.
As the world’s population is expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050, we are witnessing dramatic shifts in numerous areas.
Demographics & shifting consumer behavior
•Population growth continues to be a challenge, particularly in many emerging markets countries, placing
enormous strain on key resources.
•A rising shift out of poverty for millions of people
is generating a fast-growing middle class. Rising
disposable incomes result in greater demand for pro-
2 • Tackling Resource Efficiency Challenges
teins, consumer products, electronics and cars – all of
which use up diminishing resources in their manufacturing, transport and usage.
•The early 21st Century is also seeing an acceleration
of urbanization, as hundreds of millions of people
move from rural areas to cities, placing increasing
demands on energy production and waste handling.
As our global population continues to rise, and the ranks of the middle-class
swell in developing countries, we can see an ever-increasing pressure on the
world’s finite resources.
Exceeding Earth’s carrying capacity
•There is growing scientific evidence – and increasing
societal acceptance – that human activity is contributing to climate change. Weather patterns are shifting, leading to more extreme events, such as hurricanes, floods and droughts, impacting agricultural
yields.
•Industrialization and growing consumption are
generating increased pollution and we are seeing
the effects all over the planet, from overflowing landfills, to plastic waste in our seas and the increasing
groundwater pollution.
•Our need for raw materials to power our industrial
infrastructure is contributing to resource scarcity.
We are quickly exhausting easy to reach supplies and
future extraction of oil and mineral resources will
prove much more difficult and costly.
Increased speed of global change
•Globalization is opening up new markets to manufacturers and retailers, with the associated rise in raw
material demand. As supply chains expand to emerging markets, global markets and resources become
more interconnected leading to more volatility of
resource prices.
•Hybrid vehicles. Bio-plastics. On-line music purchasing platforms. Carbon-fibers. Laser cutting technologies. These are just a few examples of innovations
that have helped companies remain competitive by
speeding up production processes, reducing costs
and transforming how products are delivered to consumers.
•With the rise of social media and the increased
speed and access to information, stakeholders
wield much more power than they did in the past.
Environmentally conscious consumers are selecting
products that have a lower environmental impact.
And in the wake of several high-profile workplace
accidents, better-informed customers are pressuring
companies to ensure the safety and sustainability of
their supply chains.
Tackling Resource Efficiency Challenges • 3
Scarcity Drives
Innovation
Resources and resourcefulness
Demand for resources is being driven not only by a
growing population, but also by increasing wealth.
As people in the developing world grow richer, they are
consuming far more resources than before. Looking
ahead, population growth and increasing resource
intensity will come primarily from developing countries,
particularly China and India. If global resource consumption levels per capita across all developing regions were
Resource scarcity creates new risks that the global
economy must address to ensure long-term
economic prosperity. For example, business and
production disruptions arising from shortages in the
supply of iron and steel could put up to USD 2 trillion
of global GDP at risk.3
2
Dittrich, Monika; Giljum,
Stefan; Lutter, Stephan;
Polzin, Christine; “Green
economies around the world?
Implications of resource use
for development and the
environment,” Sustainable
Europe Research Institute,
p. 67, 2012
3
World Economic Forum, in
collaboration with Accenture,
“More with less: Scaling
Sustainable Consumption
and Resource Efficiency”,
p. 5, January 2012
4 • Tackling Resource Efficiency Challenges
to catch up with consumption levels observed in OECD
countries, the world would require 180 billion tons of
materials in 2050, almost tripling the amount of materials used compared to 2008 levels.2 Clearly, such a level
of consumption cannot be sustained.
Are we, then, set for some sort of Malthusian apocalypse? A fundamental principle of economics is that
resources are limited. Under this conventional wisdom,
the growing demand for finite resources will lead to
rising prices for production inputs. So it has long been
argued that as populations and economies grow, the
depletion of resources will accelerate until we eventually
run out altogether.
Key resources such as metals, fuels, water, arable land and clean air are
limited. But rising demand is causing resource scarcity, price volatility and
unreliable supply.
A history of innovation
But history tells a different story. As demand for resources and nominal prices have risen, human ingenuity and
innovation have allowed mankind to substitute away
from supply-constrained resources and develop technological advances – enabling productivity gains and more
efficient use of limited resources. The shortage of vital
resources and rising prices has always triggered a burst
The quest for resource efficiency can stimulate
technological innovation and create new markets,
which are the engines for future economic growth.
of innovation, leading to the discovery of new materials
and the development of new technologies. In the 1700’s,
for example, the expansion of the British Empire led to
a shortage of timber, prompting an increase in the use
of coal. In response to the shortage of wood, the steam
engine was developed to pump water out of coal mines,
sparking the Industrial Revolution.
The same trends played out last century – as when flash
smelting of copper was introduced in response to electricity shortages in Finland after the Second World War.
Thanks to its low energy consumption, flash smelting
has significantly reduced the cost of producing copper.
More recently, the aviation industry has had to respond
to rising fuel prices. To lower fuel consumption – by
far the largest operating expense for airlines – aircraft
manufacturers have been building progressively lighter
planes by shifting from steel to aluminium, and from
aluminium to lightweight composite materials.
Tackling Resource Efficiency Challenges • 5
Financial Impact
of Resource Scarcity
Productivity gains relieve cost pressures
During the second half of the 20th Century, resource productivity gains have enabled a considerable decrease in
the amount of natural resources required for each unit
of economic output produced, particularly in the developed world. Thanks to such developments, real commodity prices actually declined during this time period,
despite increasing demand.
In the 21st Century, however, a different trend has
emerged. Both commodity prices and price volatility
have increased over the last decade, leading to rising
input costs and production bottlenecks. This has been
driven by accelerating population growth and the
expanding middle class in the emerging economies.
As disposable incomes rise, consumption of meat,
consumer goods, electronic gadgets and cars increase.
Development in real and nominal commodity prices (1934 – 2013)
Log of nominal and real commodity prices
(Jan. 1934 = 100)
10,000
1,000
100
10
Jan-34
Jan-40
Jan-46
Jan-52
Jan-58
DJ-UBS Commodity Index - Real prices
Source: Bloomberg
4
Dittrich, Monika; Giljum,
Stefan; Lutter, Stephan;
Polzin, Christine; “Green
economies around the world?
Implications of resource use
for development and the
environment,” Sustainable
Europe Research Institute,
p. 21, 2012
6 • Tackling Resource Efficiency Challenges
Jan-64
Jan-70
Jan-76
Jan-82
Jan-88
Jan-94
Jan-00
DJ-UBS Commodity Index - Nominal prices (Jan. 1934 - Aug. 2013)
Jan-06
Jan-12
To sustain this growth, the global extraction of materials
including biomass, minerals, fossil fuels, and metals,
has grown by 80% in the last 30 years, reaching 70 billion tons. As a result, the global economy is stretching
the limits of the Earth’s water, mineral, land, fuel and
food resources.4
The effects of rising demand are compounded by the
steepening costs of securing an adequate supply of
resources. Most of the easily accessible resources have
already been extracted. Geographical, political and
environmental constraints mean that many supplies of
critical resources such as oil or some metals are increas-
ingly found in remote, difficult to reach places – such
as deep sea areas or the arctic – making it difficult and
expensive to extract them. In many cases, their extraction comes with added environmental, social and other
indirect costs.
The global economy now stands at a crossroads
To prevent the depletion of vital natural resources, we
need to find new ways of decoupling economic growth
from resource-intensive production. We must make
industrial processes more resource-efficient, develop
substitutes for supply-constrained resources and promote reuse and recycling.
Tackling Resource Efficiency Challenges • 7
If we only focus on the challenges we face, then the picture can seem bleak.
But if we look a little harder, we quickly find those companies already
applying innovation to tackle our resource challenges.
Solutions
Resources are limited – but solutions abound
Resource depletion requires large-scale changes in
how businesses and markets operate. But a wide range
of successful and creative solutions already exist.
Process innovation
One of the benefits of a competitive marketplace is
that businesses can’t afford to stand still. Though our
overall consumption of resources continues to grow, we
are becoming much more efficient in how we use them
thanks to the application of process innovations such
as laser cutting technologies and industrial automation
used in manufacturing.
Resource efficiency means doing more with less:
improving productivity and cutting costs, while
simultaneously minimizing negative impacts on
the environment.
8 • Tackling Resource Efficiency Challenges
New business models
As the pace of change continues to accelerate, old business models are being replaced by new, more disruptive
versions: print media and television by web content and
video-on-demand; physical CDs and albums by online
music stores; the traditional brick and mortar shops by
online shopping and home delivery. Such developments
aim to deliver enhanced efficiency and cost reductions,
while generating new revenue streams and ultimately
“delivering more from less”.
Substituting for efficiency
The automotive industry has been progressively replacing steel with aluminum to improve fuel efficiency and
meet stricter CO2 emission standards.
Recycle/life cycle
We also now better understand the life cycle potential in
many materials – how a resource can be managed more
efficiently, from extraction, transport, transformation
and consumption, to the disposal of its waste.
Our investment strategies enable investors to complement their traditional
asset allocations with an overarching resource efficiency investment theme
that is expected to benefit from long-term secular growth.
Strategies
Investing in human ingenuity
Building on our in-depth understanding of long-term
sustainability trends, we invest in those market segments that are tackling these challenges head on.
RobecoSAM’s thematic public equity and private equity
strategies translate resource-related challenges into
­specialized investment portfolios containing futureoriented companies that are already providing innovative solutions to resource scarcity in the areas of water,
energy, ­agri­business, materials and healthy living.
Companies developing resource efficiency
solutions that increase productivity or lower input
costs will benefit from reduced risks associated with
price fluctuations, environmental liabilities and
regulations, and an enhanced reputation, boosting
their competitiveness. Investors who identify these
game changers can benefit from superior riskadjusted returns.
Our public thematic equity strategies offer: investments
in small and mid-sized com­panies with attractive valuations that tend to be under-researched by mainstream
investors, offering our clients exposure to high-growth
markets with the potential for long-term
value creation.
Our private equity strategies capitalize on: the global
resource efficiency opportunity through investments in
the private market. The focus is on growth capital and
small and mid-market buyout investments as well as the
development and construction of envi­ronmental infrastructure projects.
Diversifier to mainstream investments &
impact monitoring
As a natural diversifier to mainstream investments, our strategies can fit into satellite investment categories
such as natural resources, infrastructure, energy, resource efficiency, a­ lternatives or even commodities, and
can enhance investors’ overall risk/return profiles.
For investors who wish to communicate to their stakeholders on the ESG impact of their investments, our
impact monitoring and reporting capabilities demonstrate the positive impact of our investment strategies
on both the environment and society at large.
Tackling Resource Efficiency Challenges • 9
RobecoSAM expects the water sector to grow twice as fast as global gross
domestic product in the future. Our strategy seeks to identify the long-term
winners in this multibillion global market.
Water
Water – the ultimate resource
Water is a precious, yet finite resource essential for life,
with no adequate substitute. Supplying and allocating
water of adequate quality and in sufficient quantity is
one of the major challenges facing society today.
Population growth, increasing per capita water consumption, pollution and unstable weather patterns
have all contributed to water scarcity. Over the last
50 years, f­ reshwater withdrawals have tripled, while
the available supply of water has remained constant.
Even more troubling, if water consumption continues
at the same rate, we could be facing a supply gap of
40% by 2030.5
A government report recently revealed that about 30%
of China’s rivers are polluted, a­ nd 60% of its groundwater resources are polluted. Therefore, China has made
water a p­ riority. In its 12th Five Year Plan, the Chinese
government plans to spend USD 615 billion on wastewater treatment, water efficiency improvement, and ensuring adequate supply, ­rep­resenting huge opportunities
for providers of wastewater treatment technologies.6
Such challenges are creating a giant market for water
solutions. According to some estimates, the global water
market is expected to grow from USD 500 billion today,
to USD 1 trillion by 2020.7
The RobecoSAM Sustainable Water Strategy taps
this global opportunity by investing in innovative
companies offering products and services that
address challenges related to the quantity, quality
and allocation of water.
5Water
Resources Group, 2009,
cited in World Economic Forum,
in collaboration with Accenture,
“More with less: Scaling
Sustainable Consumption and
Resource Efficiency”, p. 10,
January 2012
6World
Economic Forum, in
collaboration with Accenture,
“More with less: Scaling
Sustainable Consumption and
Resource Efficiency” p. 33,
January 2012
7 B
of A Merrill Lynch, Merrill
Lynch Advisor: Outlook 2013,
p. 7
10 • Tackling Resource Efficiency Challenges
Membrane Technology
The latest membranes enable efficient water
purification with little power consumption and
without the use of chemicals.
The RobecoSAM Smart Materials Strategy focuses on companies developing
innovative materials and process technologies – the very mechanisms that
have driven efficiency improvements throughout the ages and will enable
sustained economic and population growth going forward.
Materials
Materials – smart solutions to resource scarcity
As we continue to deplete our stock of natural resources
and environmental issues intensify, the focus has shifted
to finding substitute materials and using resources more
productively. New technologies enabling more efficient
extraction, processing, use and recycling of ­natural
resources are needed to sustain economic growth in a
resource-constrained world.
For example, substitute composite materials such as carbon fibers – which are 4x lighter and up to 10x stronger
than steel – now account for some 50% of the s­ tructural
weight of new aircraft, offering opportunities for considerable fuel savings and ­emissions reductions.
By investing in innovative materials that substitute
­conventional materials, as well as process technologies that deliver productivity gains in resource
extraction, processing, and usage, the RobecoSAM
Smart Materials Strategy employs a comprehensive
long-term approach to addressing resource scarcity
challenges, rather ­than speculating on short-term
price increases in commodities.
Nanomaterials
Nanotechnology delivers continually improved
materials for use in the broadest spectrum of
applications.
Tackling Resource Efficiency Challenges • 11
Several long-term trends are driving the global energy transformation,
offering abundant opportunities for investors in clean energy and energysaving solutions across all sectors of the economy.
Energy
Smart Energy – powering sustainable growth
Between 1980 and 2008, global fossil fuel consumption
increased by 60%, driven primarily by Asia, which experienced rapid industrialization and population growth.8
And by 2030, energy demand is expected to grow by
another 40%.9 This insatiable hunger for energy coupled with rising fossil fuel prices and growing concerns
over climate change and energy security are driving the
search for alternative sources of energy and energyefficient solutions.
For example, lighting consumes about 20% of all electricity. Replacing inefficient incandescent bulbs with LED
lighting can reduce electricity use by up to 90%. Cities
that switch to LED street lights can boost operational
savings by up to 40%, as the longer life span of LEDs
reduces replacement and maintenance costs.
The RobecoSAM Smart Energy Strategy targets
both the supply and the demand side of the energy
equation by investing in forward-looking companies
whose innovative technologies and services
facilitate the development of alternative energy
sources and enable the more efficient, reliable and
environmentally-friendly use of energy.
Flexible solar cells
The plastic films with microscopically thin layers of
photovoltaic materials can be applied to objects in
the most diverse ways.
8Dittrich,
Monika; Giljum,
Stefan; Lutter, Stephan;
Polzin, Christine; “Green
economies around the world?
Implications of resource use
for development and the
environment,” Sustainable
Europe Research Institute,
p. 61, 2012
9World
Economic Forum, in
collaboration with Accenture,
“More with less: Scaling
Sustainable Consumption
and Resource Efficiency”, p. 9,
January 2012
12 • Tackling Resource Efficiency Challenges
Surging global demand is driving unprecedented change in the agribusiness
sector – the challenge of sustainable inten­sification of agricultural production
and distribution is creating a wealth of new business and investment opportunities.
Agribusiness
Agribusiness – harvesting opportunities
A growing population and increasing competition
between food, feed and fuel for limited arable land
resources calls for rapid advances in agricultural productivity. Global cereal demand is growing 1.3% per year,
while average yields are growing at only 0.9% per year.10
At the same time, increased affluence in emerging markets is leading consumers to consume more meat, fish,
dairy products and processed food. This is significant
because livestock requires up to 8 kg of feed for every
1 kg of meat produced, putting additional pressure on limited arable land.
But reducing waste is just as important as increasing
food production: up to 30% of all harvested food is
wasted, spoiled or thrown away before it reaches the
table. This provides opportunities for companies that
provide innovative storage, transportation, and packaging solutions.
Going forward, companies along the entire agricultural
value chain will need to innovate to optimize output while
minimizing the impact on all agricultural resources.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO), agricultural production would have to increase
by at least 70% over the next 40 years to meet total
demand for food.11 ­
The RobecoSAM Sustainable Agribusiness
Equities Strategy invests globally in companies that
play an integral role in the long-term provision of
food security.
Advanced fertilizer
injection kit
10Lee,
Bernice; Preston, Felix;
Kooroshy, Jaakko;
Bailey, Rob; Lahn, Glada,
“Resources Futures,”
A Chatham House Report;
p. xvii, December 2012
Used during field tillage, it enables more efficient
application of fertilizers and contributes to
improved crop yields.
11 RobecoSAM,
“Harvesting
Opportunities for a
Sustainable Food Supply,”
page 6, 2012
Tackling Resource Efficiency Challenges • 13
Inefficient healthcare systems are a serious threat to global health and
economic productivity. Forward-looking providers of innovative nutritional,
activity and healthcare solutions should benefit from growing global
attention to this long-term challenge.
Healthy Living
Healthy workforce for a healthy economy
Human capital is a key contributor to economic development. But demographic shifts and changing dietary
habits are putting this at risk. Driven by aging, rising
obesity rates and the growing prevalence of obesityrelated chronic diseases, healthcare costs around the
world are rising as a percentage of total national income.
Not only are people getting older, they are also getting
heavier. In the US alone, annual costs related to the
treatment of obesity total over USD 190 billion and are
expected to increase to around USD 780 billion by 2030.
Although the treatment of chronic health conditions
will always remain a necessary and v­ aluable part of the
healthcare system, it does not address the causes of
spiraling healthcare costs. Thus, promoting healthier
diets and increased physical activity are the most cost-­
effective ways of managing future healthcare costs
associated with these illnesses and ensuring a healthy
workforce.
At the same time, individuals’ growing awareness of the
benefits of a healthy lifestyle is creating new, fast-growing
markets, giving rise to a wealth of opportunities.
This means that society will need to invest a growing
proportion of its resources to maintain a healthy and
productive workforce. The maintenance of personal
health enables people to remain productive members
of society, comparable to capital reserves that can
be deployed.
The RobecoSAM Sustainable Healthy Living Strategy
invests in innovative companies that develop
sustainable solutions to promote a healthier lifestyle,
prevent disease, or treat and manage the symptoms
of chronic disease, all of which contribute to improving the effi­ciency of healthcare systems.
Bicycle chain ring
Ultra-light, durable components are turning the
modern bicycle into a healthy and technologically
innovative means of transport.
14 • Tackling Resource Efficiency Challenges
RobecoSAM Private Equity – investment solutions for
forward-looking investors.
Private Equity
Standard products or customized solutions
Resource efficiency and environmental footprint reduction have become a strategic focus in every major industry. As a result, former niche applications in industry
sectors like energy generation, energy efficiency, materials, water, recycling or agriculture, have matured and
evolved into business critical growth markets.
These are increasingly attracting the attention of large
corporations, buyout funds and the stock markets.
Private Equity growth and mid-market investments as
well as investments in the development and construction of environmental infrastructure offer attractive
risk-return profiles for investors interested in capitalizing
on the resource efficiency opportunity.
RobecoSAM Private Equity invests in proven,
future-oriented technologies that stand to benefit
from this long-term growth story. We have been
investing in unlisted resource efficiency businesses
since 2004 through primary and secondary fund
investments as well as direct co-investments.
RobecoSAM Private Equity provides investors with
access to well-diversified portfolios structured as
standard products or customized solutions.
Tackling Resource Efficiency Challenges • 15
Why RobecoSAM
Our expertise – your benefits
Successful investing in solution providers to the world’s
resource challenges requires a deep understanding of
the industries in which these companies operate. It also
calls for specialized knowledge of the inherent complexity of new technologies as well as an understanding of
specific industry drivers and the regulatory environment
driving resource efficiency improvements.
For this reason, many of the most promising companies
are under-researched by the investment community,
offering an information advantage to investors possessing the right combination of skills and expertise
required to identify these opportunities.
As a pioneer in thematic public equity and private equity
investment strategies focused on identifying solution
providers to key sustainability challenges, RobecoSAM
boasts this deep understanding.
Our listed thematic equity teams:
•possess a strong track record of integrating of sustainability insights with financial analysis to produce
superior risk-adjusted returns
•are supported by a multidisciplinary team of industry
and sustainability analysts with specialized technical
and financial expertise in a range of sectors including
energy, chemicals, materials, agriculture and water
treatment technologies
Our Private Equity team:
•focuses on successful businesses catering to established
end markets, reducing technology and market risk
•consists of experienced professionals with a business,
technological and financial background who enjoy
high esteem in the private equity markets, supported
by RobecoSAM’s interdisciplinary research team
of 20 industry experts and the Rabobank Food &
Agribusiness Research Desk.
This blend of financial and scientific knowledge combined
with RobecoSAM’s extensive experience in conducting
research into long-term sustainability trends and their
impact on business environments are critical to addressing key sustainability issues specifically related to
resource efficiency.
16 • Tackling Resource Efficiency Challenges
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About RobecoSAM
Founded in 1995, RobecoSAM is an investment specialist focused exclusively on Sustainability Investing. It offers
asset management, indices, engagement, voting, impact analysis, sustainability assessments, and benchmarking
services. Asset management capabilities cater to institutional asset owners and financial intermediaries and cover
a range of ESG-integrated investments (in public and private equity), featuring a strong track record in resource
efficiency theme strategies. Together with S&P Dow Jones Indices, RobecoSAM publishes the globally recognized
Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI). Based on its Corporate Sustainability Assessment, an annual ESG analysis
of 2,800 listed companies, RobecoSAM has compiled one of the world’s most comprehensive databases of financially material sustainability information.
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the center of expertise for asset management within the ORIX Corporation. As a reflection of its own commitment
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