About the Cleantech Index
Statement of Objective
- Identify the Opportunity from a Global Megatrend
The Cleantech Index® was developed to capture the investment potential associated with the substantial increase in the economic value of clean technologies that will inevitably be unlocked as the world’s population adjusts to the linkage between economic development and resource sustainability. - Create an Index to Track it
The Cleantech Index® seeks to reflect the growth and commercial success of the world’s premier cleantech companies as demonstrated by the investment returns of their shares, i.e., capital appreciation and dividends. - Serve all Investors
To provide the first cost-effective means to invest in the rapid growth of clean technology companies across the world economy. Within the Index, companies fall into industrial sectors corresponding with the Cleantech Group’s definition of cleantech.
How to trade
Any investor with a brokerage account can invest in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that track the Cleantech Index.
Learn how to invest in the Cleantech Index »
History
Now trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Cleantech Index was launched on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) in February 2006 and represented the first index of its kind. The purpose of the index was to provide the first cost-effective way to invest in the rapid growth of clean technology companies in the global economy.
Quality screens
The index reflects the growth and commercial success of the world’s leading cleantech companies as demonstrated by the investment returns on their shares, i.e. capital appreciation and dividends. The value of the index to investors is based upon five key factors:
- Rigorous screening process for component companies
- Weighting to ensure sector diversity that is representative of the overall growth of cleantech products and services
- A scalable index design to accommodate growth
- It enables low-cost, low-effort, liquid investment vehicles
- It’s a clearly differentiated product, with a strategy intended to delivery strong investment returns
The Cleantech Index is designed not only to reflect the broad growth of cleantech businesses, but also to maximize the risk-adjusted total return to investors without sacrificing purity by including only highest quality companies possible and achieving sufficient diversification to minimize both company and sector risk.
The Cleantech Index tracks a global trend, not an industry.
The Cleantech Index component companies must pass 18 screening criteria that cover:
- Market capitalization and liquidity
- Purity, i.e., the percentage of their business that is cleantech (must be 50% or above)
- Company quality versus other sector peer companies (e.g., strategy, management, profitability, technology, industry position, etc.)
- Sector and geographic redundancy
Guidebook to the Cleantech Index
Please download our helpful guide to the index here.
Managing Director – Rafael Coven
Rafael Coven has been the managing director of the Cleantech Group’s Cleantech Indices and managed the Index since 2007. He has a combination of extensive cleantech industry and institutional investor experience. He has spent over 30 years in cleantech as a manager, entrepreneur, equity investor and management consultant.
Rafael has global experience working with or consulting to such leading cleantech firms as Abengoa, Dynatech, Philips Lighting, Siemens, and numerous cleantech venture capital and private equity and investors. During the 1990s, he was an international equity analyst at Dietche & Field Advisors where he evaluated, made, and managed a US $700 million segment of the firm’s $5.6 billion equity holdings (including many cleantech companies). He has also founded three cleantech companies and still actively reviews numerous cleantech businesses. He has lived and worked in several countries and speaks Italian and Spanish.
He holds a B.A in Developmental Economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School. He and his family live in Baltimore, Maryland.