Two AllianceBernstein funds have received RSMR's standard active rating and responsible rating, marking the first time the US manager's products have received the classifications, International Investment's sister brand Investment Week can reveal. 

The ES AllianceBernstein Sustainable US Equity fund (onshore) and AB Alliance Bernstein Sustainable US Thematic fund (offshore) have received RSMR's standard and responsible rating, marking them as funds that "go further" on ESG.

The pair of funds invest solely in companies that provide products or services that seek to make the world more sustainable and align their investment process with the UN SDGs.

There are Luxembourg SICAV and UK OEIC versions of the funds. The offshore product launched in April 2001, while its onshore counterpart launched in March 2020.

They are managed under three broad pillars: sustainable themes, ESG integration and active ownership. Seven sectors are excluded from their investment universe, of which coal and tobacco are two.

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Stuart Ryan, head of research at RSMR, explained that in order to qualify for an RSMR responsible rating, a fund must "go further" on ESG.

"ESG factors have always represented potential risks to companies, and so ESG plays an important role in our qualitative assessment for an RSMR rating…we scrutinise the specific responsible investment element of the process at both firm and fund level to ensure the two are connected," he said. 

"And each fund that receives a responsible rating needs to satisfy the requirement to be categorised as ethical, sustainable, thematic or impact". AB's funds are categorised as sustainable. 

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The funds use a proprietary UN SDG-aligned tool and approximately 106 of the 169 underlying UN SDG targets to formulate the three core themes of health, empowerment and climate.

Each of the themes consist of subthemes and the firm harnesses its ESIGHT tool to cover both fixed income and equities, allowing for the tracking of progress over time.