Man GLG has launched its first fund that adheres to stricter sustainability criteria with a product targeting water scarcity and pollution.

The Man GLG RI Sustainable Water and Circular Economy fund will be labelled as an Article 9 fund, meaning it meets the higher standard under the European SFDR legislation.

Article 9 funds have a sustainable investment objective, rather than just promoting general ESG characteristics, like the lower level Article 8 funds.

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The firm said the fund, which will be managed by Yohann Terry and Jann Breitenmoser who joined the firm last year, would aim to tackle four of the UN's 17 Sustainability Development Goals - clean water and sanitation (goal 6); life below water (goal 14); life on land (goal 15); and responsible consumption and production (goal 12).

Man GLG said the fund will invest solely in companies that address the fight against water scarcity, improve the supply and treatment of high-quality water, or address the challenges of the circular economy, such as pollution control and resource management.

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The circular economy is viewed by some sustainability campaigners as a major goal towards achieving net zero, as it relies on sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing and refurbishing existing materials as long as possible, rather than the ‘take-make-waste' linear model of production that is most prevalent at present.

Teun Johnston, chief executive of Man GLG, said the launch "responds to clear and growing demand" for such strategies.

"As our first Article 9 fund, this is a milestone moment for Man GLG as well as a demonstration of our commitment to responsible investment," he said.

The fund will be available in a UCITS structure and will be benchmarked against the MSCI World index. It will be available for an ongoing charges figure of 0.95%.

The managers previously ran sustainability-focused investment strategies at J Safra Sarasin Asset Management, and the pair will be based in Switzerland.