ESG

New And Potent: UBP Eyes Opportunities In AI, "Precision Agriculture"

Amanda Cheesley Deputy Editor 22 July 2025

New And Potent: UBP Eyes Opportunities In AI,

As artificial intelligence and nature-based investing impact the landscape of equity investing, UBP discusses its latest impact investing report, looking at how AI can serve as a catalyst for positive social and environmental outcomes while generating financial returns.

At a roundtable in London last week, Swiss private bank Union Bancaire Privée highlighted the positive effects of AI in the healthcare, energy and agriculture space, delivering social and environmental outcomes as well as financial returns.

In the healthcare sector, for instance, JD Health is deploying AI across a range of digital health tools including virtual doctors, nutritionists, diagnosis assistants, and research aides, the firm said at the event. At JD Health Online Hospitals, AI is used in 80 per cent of consultation orders, and in some cases has replaced 90 per cent of human involvement, expanding access to affordable healthcare according to the company.

Trane Technologies, meanwhile, uses AI to optimise energy use in buildings, the firm continued. By combining data from connected assets with AI modelling, they are building digital twins that improve energy efficiency. Their AI infrastructure spans over 42,000 buildings and two million assets, enabling emission reductions at scale.

Biodiversity
With the food system accounting for 30 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions and resources being scarce, Adrien Cambonie, portfolio manager of UBP’s Biodiversity Restoration strategy, stressed the importance of investing in precision agriculture, to produce more using fewer resources. The strategy is in the listed space, designed to enable investors to benefit from equity returns while contributing to conservation and restoration projects.

A top holding is US-based agriculture machinery producer John Deere which uses AI in its “See & Spray” agricultural technology, covering one million acres in 2024. The system reduces herbicide use by nearly 60 per cent, contributing to more sustainable farming practices. Another top holding is US-based agriculture machinery producer AGCO which also specialises in precision ag technology. Cambonie also visited a farm in Essex which uses drones to improve monitoring the state of a field and crop growth.

Other holdings include US-based organic grocery chain Sprout Farmers Market, US-based natural foods group Hain Celestial Group and Finland’s healthy food company Raisio. The fund also invests in vertical farms which enable crops to be grown all year round, using LED lighting. It uses up to 95 per cent less water than conventional agriculture.

Another area of the Biodiversity Restoration strategy is sustainable forestry, Cambonie continued. Top holdings include Sumitomo Forestry which controls 40,500 hectares of forest in Japan, and Natura Holdings which aims to expand its influence on forest preservation from 1.8 million to three million hectares, and from 33 to 40 communities.

Although ESG has faced a backlash recently, Victoria Leggett, head of impact development at UBP, believes that the tide is starting to turn, adding that the Luxembourg-domiciled Biodiversity Restoration strategy has performed well this year. It is classified under Article 9 of the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). She has seen a lot of interest in the fund from Scandinavian investors, in particular, as well as from UK and French investors.

Leggett is not alone in her views. Other investment managers are putting money to work by handling more sustainable ways of producing food and forestry. Alastair Cooper at Cibus Capital, for instance, believes that the need to produce more food using fewer resources to feed a growing population has become critical. “The catalyst is new technology which is offering new solutions around resource efficiency and sustainability. Large-scale farmland needs to revert to more organic and regenerative agriculture and use new tech to make up the slack in terms of production,” Cooper told this news service. SLM Partners also recently launched the new SLM Silva Fund II, a €200 million ($210 million) fund to invest in sustainable forestry and carbon in Europe. (See here and here.)

UBP also manages a Positive Impact Global Equity and Positive Impact Emerging Equity fund, a listed equity emerging market impact fund.

The US’s recent withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change Agreement made waves, and several financial institutions, including JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, exited the Net-Zero Banking Alliance in late 2024. However, at the event Mathieu Nègre, head of impact investing at UBP, highlighted that most banks have retained near-term decarbonisation targets and continue to finance renewable energy and transition technologies.

Nègre also emphasised that emerging markets are leading the way on renewables. China, for instance, plays a key role in renewables, notably in solar power.  Although China still relies on fossil fuels, particularly coal, it produces more than 80 per cent of all solar photovoltaic panels, half of the world’s leading electric vehicles and a third of its wind power. The country aims to have 80 per cent of its total energy mix from non-fossil fuel sources by 2060.

Since its launch in 2018, UBP's impact franchise has seen its assets under management grow from $42 million to over $500 million, managing three strategies – Biodiversity Restoration, Positive Impact Global Equity, and Positive Impact Emerging Equity – and it plans to build on these.

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