BlackRock is converting its BlackRock Money Market Portfolio to the BlackRock Wealth Liquid Environmentally Aware Fund (WeLEAF), which the firm says is the first environmentally aware money market product dedicated for the US wealth market.

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“Client interest in our LEAF series has revealed tremendous demand for sustainable liquidity management,” Thomas Callahan, BlackRock’s head of global cash management, said in statement. “WeLEAF was designed to answer the call of our private wealth distribution partners, who are seeking a money market fund product that appeals to the growing segment of their clients that care deeply about sustainability and climate risk.”

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WeLEAF will seek to invest at least 80% of the value of its net assets in securities whose issuer or guarantor meets the fund’s environmental criteria. Under the fund’s investment policies, an issuer or guarantor may meet such criteria if it, at the time of the fund’s investment, it has a better-than-average performance in environmental practices.

According to the fund’s prospectus, when evaluating performance in environmental practices, BlackRock will use data or other environmental, social, or governance (ESG) risk metrics including ratings provided by independent research vendors in determining whether to invest in a security.

The research vendors may consider one or more of the following factors: issuer or industry exposure to environmentally intensive activities, disclosures by an issuer around climate related issues and environmental matters, or specific targets or plans by an issuer to manage environmental exposures.

The fund will not invest in securities issued or guaranteed by entities that derive more than 5% of their revenue from fossil fuels mining, exploration, or refinement, or that derive more than 5% of their revenue from thermal coal or nuclear energy-based power generation. It may also invest in “green bonds,” whose proceeds will be used to finance projects intended to generate what BlackRock deems is an environmental benefit.

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