Green Bond Award For Second Opinion Excellence Awarded To oekom Research

oekom research, a sustainability rating agency (www.oekom-research.com) was named the “most impressive Second Opinion Provider” (SPO1) at this year’s SRI / Green Bond Awards.

The competition initiated by international trade magazine GlobalCapital recognises those market players – from green bond issuers and investors to book runners and second opinion providers – who further the market and set its standards through excellent and innovative projects, high quality and professional expertise. Banks, investors and bond issuers were asked for their views on this in a major survey that was conducted from June to August.

In the framework of its Sustainability Bond Services, oekom research compiles sophisticated, high quality second party opinions (SPOs) on green bond issues for which it has already received several awards in the past. As recently as in May 2016, for example, winners in half the bond-specific categories of the Environmental Finance Green Bond Awards had been confirmed for their sustainable qualities in oekom research SPOs. A Südwind Institut study of 32 SPOs published in June 2016 expressly declared oekom research’s SPOs as being of such high quality and thoroughness as to allow them to serve as an industry benchmark.

oekom research Director International Business Development, Dr. Julia Haake, is delighted about the latest independent confirmation: “Our green bond assessments – be they in the framework of our Sustainable Bond Rating or by means of detailed SPOs – are always based on oekom research’s rigorous understanding of sustainability. It is therefore all-the-more gratifying for us that this concept has been confirmed by different institutions and experts.”

This motivates us all the more to systematically continue pursuing our goal of bringing more transparency and quality to this still largely unregulated market.

With its sophisticated and high quality services, oekom research stands out as an innovation driver and industry leader for rating green bonds. They make a decisive contribution towards green bonds remaining an effective instrument for achieving sustainable trends and goals. Up to now, oekom research’s dedicated team of analysts and experts has prepared SPOs on 15 green bond projects, with a further three projects currently being worked on.

Besides offering second party opinions, oekom research has also developed the Sustainability Bond Rating for a uniform and comparative evaluation of outstanding green and social bonds on the market to provide investors with a reliable orientation and help on deciding on their choice of suitable investments. The oekom Sustainability Bond Rating Universe is continually growing and currently encompasses around 240 green bonds with a volume of almost USD 75 billion; according to the Environmental Finance Green Bond Database, this corresponds to around a 50 percent coverage of the global market at the end of August 2016. The database includes all bonds issued under the Green Bond Principles.