Water Asset Management (WAM) is committed to making the world better by investing in companies and assets that improve water quality and water supply. Water investing combines market outperformance with positive impact, clearly bypassing ESG ambiguity. WAM’s Global Water Equity Strategy was ranked first by eVestment in long-term performance vs. ESG peers since its 2006 inception. In addition, WAM was one of only 22 funds out of 466 global ESG funds ranked by eVestment as a consistent top quartile performer for the one, three and 10-year periods and since inception.
While WAM champions transitioning the economy to renewable energy to mitigate future negative effects of climate change, water investing is climate adaptation to the world we have today. We encourage all investors to take a more balanced approach to capital allocation between climate mitigation and climate adaptation, and to include water in all portfolios.
The primary negative effect of climate change is the intensification of drought and flood. The companies in WAM portfolios create value by growing their earnings, dividends and asset values by providing practical solutions, as they have for decades, to problems associated with drought and flood, while improving water quality and supply reliability.
Water Asset Management has leading domain expertise in the water industry, which is one of the best industries to invest in for long-term capital preservation, capital appreciation and wealth transfer. The industry includes many companies that are monopolies or oligopolies with durable, positive, inflation-protected pricing power.
Right now, the water industry is seeing a significant capital investment super-cycle, with increased spending on pumps, pipes, meters, and other goods and services to ensure water quality and water supply. That capital spending had been under-invested for decades, so there's a multi-decade-long spending catch-up required in essential water infrastructure and resources to ensure the future and to maintain life as we know it.
Since 2006, we've managed money for some of the largest institutions in the world, and we've outperformed the markets from inception. Our hedge fund is one of the very few long / short funds focused on buying stocks that are growing by adapting to climate change and shorting stocks that are at risk from drought, flood, wildfire liability and pollution liability. Virtually all of the companies in the water industry, whether they’re in our portfolio or not, are having a positive impact on society, communities, industry, agriculture and the environment.
Water is essential. Without it, everything is not only worth less, but worthless.