Environmental Indicators: Conditions for a Relevant Aggregated Measure

Jean-Guillaume PÉLADAN * Directeur de la Stratégie environnement, Sycomore Asset Management ; membre du Conseil d'administration, Forum pour l'investissement responsable (FIR).Contact : jean-guillaume.peladan@polytechnique.org.

Julie RAYNAUD ** Experte indépendante en finance durable ; membre du réseau, Institut Louis Bachelier. Contact : julie.raynaud@mail.mcgill.ca.

Peter TANKOV *** Professeur, CREST-ENSAE, Institut Polytechnique de Paris. Contact : peter.tankov@ensae.fr.

Olivier David ZERBIB **** Doctorant, Tilburg University, ISFA, CREST. Contact : o.d.a.zerbib@tilburguniversity.edu. Nous remercions Aurélie de Barochez, Valéry Lucas-Leclin, Lionel Melin, Benoît Mercereau, Christian Robert et Antoine de Salins pour leurs commentaires.

After presenting the main existing environmental indicators and their limitations, we propose a definition of the characteristics of a relevant and efficient metric in a holistic approach: encompassing all environmental issues, analyzing the entire life cycle, using physical measures, covering a global scope of analysis, being computable across all asset classes, being modular, operational, readable, neutral, transparent, stable over time and using the information already available, given the environmental emergency. Finally, we review the main available methods for aggregating environmental indicators with their advantages and drawbacks.