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About Us
People are the product
Since our founding, we have focused on serving clients who appreciate individualized account management, our philosophy of diversification and a high level of personal service. We have the experience and investment capabilities to meet the needs of a diverse client base.
- Family Offices
- Corporations
- Public Funds
- Endowments
- Foundations
- Taft Hartley
- Religious Organizations
- Financial Institutions
We understand the concerns of institutional investors, starting with your need to develop a deep understanding of our investment strategies and their ability to generate future returns.
As a partner, we respect and share your desire for transparency, and have built a client service model capable of meeting your expectations for communication, risk management, and client reporting.
Private Market Scan and Deal Screening
Capital Innovations maintains a proprietary database of investment managers that tracks major infrastructure sectors, natural resource sectors and real estate sectors. Capital Innovations utilizes a highly customizable alternative asset class tracking system. Capital Innovations tracks what managers are currently in the market and when managers will be coming back to market.
Through this process, each potential investment is initially screened for factors such as strategy, value proposition, peer universe comparison, terms, and potential portfolio fit. Capital Innovations applies strong fundamental viewpoints and in-depth quantitative analysis to evaluate and rate products according to a myriad of factors. Capital Innovations’ process is a clear reflection of Capital Innovations’ operational and research standards and consists of two main stages:
Initial Rating with the Capital Innovations InSight™ Process
First, the Capital Innovations InSight™ process, which uses Capital Innovations’ proprietary model, analyzes available investment manager data and rates each product according to seven factors: business, staff, investment process, investment risk, performance, terms/conditions, and operations. The Capital Innovations InSight™ process applies a quantitative framework around the fundamental insights Capital Innovations believes indicate investment opportunities which may be well-positioned to ultimately add value going forward.
This initial review process allows Capital innovations’ research professionals to quickly identify investment products with the strongest potential of ultimately obtaining a “buy” rating after Capital Innovations’ due-diligence process concludes. Products that receive an above-average rating may move on to Capital Innovations’ full due diligence and rating process. We note a qualitative override of the process result can move a selected product into the next phase of our research process. Overrides typically occur when the data does not match a fundamental understanding of a product (e.g., a newly offered product from a well-established, highly regarded manager)
Our Vision
We established Capital Innovations in 2007 so our clients may have access to a nimble boutique Real Assets focused manager with the benefits of a stable global platform built on our core principles.
- 100% employee owned 51% female owned
- Effective transparent corporate governance
- Low ego long term client centric focus
- Home grown investment team
- Enduring client partnerships
- Analytical idea driven culture
- Experienced professionals
Institutional investors can rely on Capital Innovations to meet all challenges energetically, from defining optimal strategies and evaluating risk to managing costs.
You will find our professionals to be fully committed to your interests, creative in identifying opportunities to meet your objectives, and meticulous in their attention to detail.
Capital Innovations ESG Principles
ESG and Sustainability
Our ESG principles are embedded throughout our operations and help us ensure that our business model will be sustainable well into the future.
Ensure the well-being and safety of employees:
Employee Well-Being: Meet or exceed all applicable labor laws and standards in jurisdictions where we operate, which includes respecting human rights, offering competitive wages and implementing nondiscriminatory hiring practices.
Health & Safety: Aim to have zero serious safety incidents within our businesses by working toward implementing consistent health and safety principles across the organization.
Be good stewards in the communities in which we operate:
Community Engagement: Engage with community groups that might be affected by our actions to ensure that their interests, safety and well-being are appropriately integrated into our decision-making.
Philanthropy: Encourage our employees to participate in the communities in which we operate.
Mitigate the impact of our operations on the environment:
Environmental Stewardship: Strive to minimize the environmental impact of our operations and improve our efficient use of resources over time.
Conduct business according to the highest ethical and legal/regulatory standards:
Governance, Ethics, and Fairness: Operate with high ethical standards by conducting business activities in compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements, and with our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics.
Transparency: Be accessible to our investors and stakeholders by being responsive to requests for information and timely in our communication.
Sustainability is about doing more with less, whether energy, water, food, or any other critical resource:
Including battery storage; community, commercial and industrial solar; energy efficiency; electric vehicles; fuel cells; wastewater treatment; distributed desalination; and organic waste management.
Sustainable Energy
- Microgrids
- Solar Energy storage
- Lighting
- HVAC systems
- Fuel cells
- Geothermal
- Biomass & biogas
- Building automation & sensors
- Heat pumps
- Smart meters
Sustainable Mobility
- Electric Vehicles
- Hydrogen Vehicles
- Autonomous Vehicles
- Charging Depots & Infrastructure
- Fleets
Sustainable Water, Waste & Agriculture
- Anaerobic Digesters
- Wastewater Treatment
- Desalination
- Food Waste Management
- Recycling/Reuse
- Precision Agriculture
- Farm Automation
- Irrigation
- Sensors & Meters
United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment
Capital Innovations was one of early is a signatories of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), formally demonstrating our ongoing commitment to responsible investment and environmental, social and governance (ESG) best practices. Based on our heritage as an owner and operator, we have a long history of embedding ESG considerations into our operations. Michael Underhill is Chairman Emeritus of the UNPRI Infrastructure Workstream. He was elected to the position in 2011.
During Michael Underhill's leadership at UNPRI, he led creation of an investment scoring compendium. The scores produced can be turned into investment decisions through an economic cost/benefit analysis to create a framework that can be calibrated according to business needs. This tool allows the investment teams to screen a larger pool of potential opportunities and focus more on value-creating activities in the ESG space. Mr. Underhill and Capital Innovations maintains ownership of the intellectual property.
The PRI is one the world’s leading proponents of responsible investing, with an emphasis on understanding the investment implications of ESG factors and supporting an international network of investor signatories in incorporating these factors into their investment and ownership decisions.
Integrating ESG considerations into our investment process.
Pre-acquisition
In our due-diligence process for all of our potential investments, we use both internal experts and outside consultants as well as different ESG frameworks to identify material ESG factors. This analysis includes everything from ensuring environmental, legal, and regulatory compliance to the identification of opportunities to add value and mitigate risk in our portfolio of companies. Our investment teams are using an ESG due-diligence questionnaire to ensure that all potential risks and opportunities have been considered.
All investments made by a Capital Innovations fund must be approved by the fund’s Investment Committee. Investment teams provide a detailed memorandum to the committee that outlines the merits of the transaction, as well as disclosures relating to risks, including any material ESG issues and potential mitigation strategies.
Post-acquisition
Once a company is acquired, we create a tailored integration plan to ensure that all material ESG-related matters are prioritized. ESG risks and opportunities are updated regularly and actively managed by the portfolio companies, with guidance from our in-house teams. This allows us to draw upon local expertise and share best practices across the organization.
Fostering Diversity & Inclusion
As a 51% Female owned firm, embedded in our culture is a commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion across our organization. This begins at recruitment, continues in leadership training programs and is woven into our policies and procedures. As a global firm, we know that the best ideas come from having people from different backgrounds, perspectives, experiences and skills across all businesses, levels of seniority and offices.
Training programs set clear expectations for our leaders in terms of their role in helping all team members achieve their potential. The training emphasizes building trust with their teams, becoming aware of unconscious biases and provides guidance on how to add rigor to decision-making especially in recruiting, performance feedback and promotion, with the goal of creating a more diverse and inclusive environment.
Women’s networks in our various regions help our female colleagues connect with each other and provide support for career growth and leadership development.