Sustainable, Responsible &/or ESG Policy:

The Rize USA Environmental Impact UCITS ETF is a sustainable fund, as per the requirements of Article 9 of SFDR. The investment objective of the Rize USA Environmental Impact UCITS ETF (the “Fund”) is to replicate the performance of the Solactive RIZE ETF USA Environmental Impact Index Net Total Return while positively impacting climatic and environmental challenges (the “Index”). Accordingly, the Fund shares the same sustainable objective as the Index.

The objective of the Fund is to provide exposure to United States companies that are developing and applying innovative and impactful solutions to tackle the world’s most pressing climatic and environmental challenges. The taxonomy and classification of the Fund is determined and developed in conjunction with our Thematic Industry Expert, Sustainable Market Strategies (“SMS”)

We apply a consistent approach to ESG integration across all our Article 9 thematic indices and ETFs. We build our ETFs and corresponding indices from scratch and can therefore apply a consistent, standardised approach to the integration of ESG and sustainability features across our product range. Conversely, many other ETF providers license indices from a variety of third-party index providers and, accordingly, cannot adopt or apply their own consistent approach to the incorporation of ESG and sustainability features across their ETF ranges.

Our engagement programme specifically targets companies on ESG issues, including performance related to Principal Adverse Impact indicators, with the objective of fostering improvement and transparency. Our proxy voting policy is also aligned to encourage good governance and address sustainability concerns

Standard Exclusion Criteria prescribed by the RIZE Future First Policy

The RIZE Future First Policy applies a core suite of exclusion criteria across the RIZE sustainable thematic ETFs. These exclusions are designed to mitigate residual ESG risks and ensure that companies whose activities conflict with the Fund’s sustainable investment objective are excluded from the relevant thematic universe and Index.

For the purposes of applying these exclusions, RIZE distinguishes between direct involvement and semi-direct or indirect involvement. Direct involvement typically relates to producers and operators. Semi-direct or indirect involvement includes activities such as distribution, retailing, supplying, licensing, support services and other forms of participation in excluded business activities.

The standard exclusions applicable to the Fund include the following:

Controversial Weapons, Nuclear Weapons and Civilian Firearms
Companies with any ties to controversial weapons, nuclear weapons or civilian firearms are excluded. This includes direct, semi-direct and indirect involvement, with a 0% revenue tolerance threshold.

Thermal and Metallurgical Coal
Companies are excluded where they derive any revenue from thermal coal-based power generation, thermal coal mining, metallurgical coal mining, or thermal coal distribution or transport. The applicable revenue tolerance threshold is 0% across direct, semi-direct and indirect involvement.

Oil and Gas
Companies are excluded where they derive any revenue from oil and gas extraction and production, or from liquid fuel and natural gas-based power generation. A 0% revenue tolerance threshold applies to these direct activities.

Companies are also excluded where they exceed a 5% aggregate revenue threshold across specified semi-direct oil and gas activities, including oil and gas distribution and retailing, equipment and services for oil and gas exploration and production, petrochemical products, oil and gas pipelines and transportation, oil and gas refining, and oil and gas trading.

Nuclear Energy
Companies are excluded where they derive any revenue from nuclear energy-based power generation. A 0% revenue tolerance threshold applies to direct nuclear energy generation. Companies are also excluded where they derive more than 5% of revenue from manufacturing or supplying key products or services to the nuclear power industry, including uranium mining.

Weapons
Companies are excluded where they derive more than 5% of revenue from the production of conventional weapons, components, support systems or services, including biological, chemical or nuclear weapons, delivery platforms, dual-use components and related services.

Military Contracting
Companies are excluded where they derive more than 5% of revenue from military contracting activities, including companies identified through the U.S. Department of Defense Top 100 Contractors list.

Tobacco
Companies are excluded where they derive any revenue from tobacco production. A 0% threshold applies to direct tobacco production, including the manufacture of tobacco products and the growing or processing of raw tobacco leaves.

Companies are also excluded where they exceed a 5% aggregate revenue threshold across semi-direct tobacco activities, including tobacco distribution, retailing, licensing and supplying key products to the tobacco industry.

Gambling
Companies are excluded where they derive more than 5% of revenue from gambling operations, including online or mobile gambling, supporting activities and licensing.

Adult Entertainment
Companies are excluded where they derive more than 5% of revenue from the production, distribution or retail of adult entertainment products or services.

Alcohol
Companies are excluded where they derive more than 5% of revenue from manufacturing, distributing, retailing, licensing or supplying alcoholic products.

Genetic Engineering
Companies are excluded where they derive more than 5% of revenue from genetic engineering activities.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Companies are excluded where they are involved in embryonic stem cell research.

International Norms and Standards Violations
Companies flagged as having violated one or more of the major global norms frameworks are excluded. These frameworks include the UN Global Compact, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the International Labour Organization’s broad principles, the International Labour Organization’s core principles, and the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights. Companies flagged on the watch list for three or more of these frameworks may also be excluded. Depending on the relevant circumstances, further research and direct engagement with the company may be undertaken before a final determination is made.

Controversies
Companies determined to be engaged in controversial behaviour, including environmental controversies that may significantly harm one or more environmental objectives, may be placed on the RIZE Future First Exclusion List. Where appropriate, further research and engagement may be undertaken before a final determination is made.

Poor Governance Practices
Companies determined to be engaged in poor governance practices may be placed on the applicable Exclusion List. This includes concerns relating to sound management structures, employee relations, staff remuneration and tax compliance. RIZE typically seeks to exclude the worst offenders directly and engage with companies with apparent governance deficiencies where further assessment is warranted.

Armed Conflict / Other Significant Controversies
A company may also be placed on the Exclusion List if it is based in, or otherwise significantly exposed to, a country engaged in significant domestic or international armed conflict, human rights abuses, corruption or other significant controversies, even where the company itself is not directly linked to the activities of the relevant government. Any such determination is made by the Sustainability Committee.

Impact Report 2025

Process:

For our RIZE by ARK Invest sustainable thematic funds, we build all our indices and ETFS from scratch allowing for the possibility to apply a consistent approach to ESG and sustainability to the Fund. In the case of the Rize Environmental Impact 100 UCITS ETF, the index is purpose-built in collaboration with our Thematic Industry Expert Sustainable Market Strategies (SMS). Together with SMS, we launched the SMS Environmental Impact Opportunities Thematic Classification in April 2021.

The Classification is a transparent and forward-looking framework which has been designed to identify those publicly traded companies that are developing and applying innovative and impactful solutions to tackle the world’s most pressing climatic and environmental challenges. The Classification employed by the Index has been designed to be aligned with the six environmental objectives set out in the EU Taxonomy: (1) Climate Change Mitigation; (2) Climate Change Adaptation; (3) The Sustainable Use and Protection of Water and Marine Resources; (4) The Transition to A Circular Economy; (5) Pollution Prevention and Control; and (6) The Protection and Restoration of Biodiversity and Ecosystems.

The result of the classification process is the SMS Environmental Impact Opportunities Stock Universe (the “Stock Universe”), which, as of December 2024, was comprised of c350 identified publicly traded companies that have been thematically scored by Sustainable Market Strategies across the various Sub-Sectors of the Classification. Each company is then assessed for its economic exposure (i.e., relevance) to the various Sub-Sectors of the Classification, which is determined by reference to the proportion of its revenues that are attributable to the relevant Sub-Sectors, for which it receives a Green Revenue Score.

Classification & Sub-Sectors

The “Sub-Sector” represent key, identified areas of sustainable innovation in the environmental sector that are expected to grow exponentially over the coming decade. The Sub-Sectors have been extrapolated by Sustainable Market Strategies out of the six environmental objectives of the EU Taxonomy. Each company in the Stock Universe is allocated to one of the Sub-Sectors.

The objective of the Sub-Sectors is to bring greater granularity to the EU Taxonomy’s six environmental objectives. Accordingly, the Sub-Sectors deconstruct the EU’s high-level objectives into thematic areas of projected long-term secular growth. These thematic areas are then further broken down into a series of sub-themes (see below) that collectively form an investable universe that is aligned with the EU Taxonomy.

Each company’s allotted Sub-Sector is determined based on the Sub-Sector that the company derives its revenue from. Where a company derives revenue from more than one Sub-Sector, it will be classified within the Sub-Sector from which it derives the largest proportion of its revenue.

Society is only just beginning the process of transitioning to a more sustainable economy. Accordingly, as the global focus on addressing the world’s climatic and environmental challenges continues to intensify, Sustainable Market Strategies expects that more and more innovative and impactful Sub-Sectors shall emerge and the priority afforded to existing Sub-Sectors may shift as the anticipated impact of each Sub-Sector is re-assessed in line with the EU’s environmental objectives. Accordingly, Sustainable Market Strategies expects that the Sub-Sectors identified below may evolve over time to reflect the dynamic nature of the transition.

• CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION

Economic activities that contribute substantially to the stabilisation of greenhouse gas emissions by avoiding or reducing them or by enhancing greenhouse gas removals.

Renewable Energy Generation: Companies in this Sub-Sector are engaged in the generation and distribution of electricity produced from renewable energy sources, including solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, tidal and other sources deemed “renewable” by the International Renewable Energy Agency. Excluded from this Sub-Sector are companies engaged in nuclear power and the generation of electricity derived from fossil fuels (including coal, oil and natural gas) and palm oil.

Renewable Energy Equipment: Companies in this Sub-Sector design, manufacture, produce and maintain renewable power generation equipment such as solar panels, solar inverters and converters, wind turbines, water turbines and other equipment necessary for the development of renewable energy projects.

Hydrogen and Alternative Fuels: Companies in this Sub-Sector are engaged in the development, processing, production and/or distribution of alternative energy sources such as hydrogen (e.g., fuel cell and distribution solutions) and biofuels (e.g., ethanol and biodiesel). Only companies deemed to be well positioned in the most sustainable alternative fuel production methods are included in the universe (e.g., second-generation biofuels, blue/green hydrogen produced from renewable energy and/or with carbon capture technologies).

Energy Efficiency Solutions: Companies in this Sub-Sector enable more efficient methods of energy usage and management in residential, commercial and/or industrial buildings. These include, but are not limited to, smart grid solutions, smart meters, high efficiency HVAC systems, LED and CFL lighting, advanced insulation solutions and/or other activities highlighted in the European Energy Efficiency Directive.

Electric Vehicles and Green Transport: Companies in this Sub-Sector design, develop and/or manufacture sustainable transport alternatives. Included in this Sub-Sector are companies operating along the full value-chain of electric vehicles (battery technology providers, manufacturers of power train parts, car companies themselves, etc.) and green public transportation options (public transit systems and train/subway/bus manufacturers and operators offering environmentally-friendly options beyond regular mass transit companies).

• CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION

Economic activities that contribute substantially to reducing or preventing the adverse impact of the current or expected future climate, or the risks of such adverse impact.

Climate Resilience Solutions: Companies in this Sub-Sector provide solutions that aim to make us more resilient to the physical effects of climate change. Areas of focus include solutions such as irrigation technologies that secure and manage water supply for agriculture in regions suffering from increasingly erratic and/or reduced overall rainfall resulting from changing weather systems. This Sub-Sector also includes companies that provide technological know-how or solutions and/or engineering and planning services to build more resilient infrastructures.

• THE SUSTAINABLE USE AND PROTECTION OF WATER AND MARINE RESOURCES

Economic activities that contribute substantially to achieving the good status of bodies of water, including surface, groundwater, and marine waters.

Clean Water: Companies in this Sub-Sector design, develop and/or manufacture products and services that enhance clean water quality and availability infrastructure systems, such as treatment and purification systems, water efficiency technologies, and installation, maintenance, and renovation of water distribution networks. Water utilities are included provided that they operate in a marginally high-impact region (e.g., in developing countries where water infrastructure requires substantial investment).

• THE TRANSITION TO A CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Economic activities that increase the durability, reparability, upgradability, and reusability of products and/or which seek to develop ‘product as-a-service’ business models with circular value-chains.

Circular Economy Solutions: Companies in this Sub-Sector support the transition to a circular economy. Included are companies engaged in the development, manufacture, installation and/or operation of equipment and services for the collection, management, triaging, and recycling of waste. Companies engaged in the development of waste-to-energy solutions (e.g., methane capture at landfills) are also included within this Sub-Sector.

• POLLUTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL

Economic activities that contribute substantially to the prevention or reduction of pollutant emissions into air, water, or land (other than greenhouse gases)

Pollution Control: Companies in this Sub-Sector address pollution prevention and control at the primary source of emission. For the most part, these are engineering, and tech firms engaged in the design of processes that minimise pollution impacts from normal, day-to-day business operations.

• THE PROTECTION AND RESTORATION OF BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEMS

Economic activities that lead to nature and biodiversity conservation.

Nature-Based Solutions: Companies in this subsector are engaged in the development of nature-based solutions for tackling environmental challenges. Typically, these are companies involved in economic activities such as managed forestry, reforestation and afforestation, natural infrastructure management, wetlands management, and other biodiversity protection activities.

Index Selection and Weighting

Companies must be common stocks or REITs listed on an Eligible Exchange, as specified in the Index Methodology, to be eligible for selection. Companies must be incorporated or domiciled in the US to be eligible for selection. To ensure a focus on environmental contribution, companies must have a Green Revenue Score of 50% or more, indicating they derive a significant proportion of their revenue from activities aligned with EU Taxonomy environmental objectives. Companies which are flagged in the Rize Future First Exclusion List shall not be eligible for selection. Companies must also meet certain minimum free-float market capitalisation and 3-month average daily trading value thresholds to be eligible for selection.

Having been selected for inclusion within the Index, companies are initially weighted according to their relative Environmental Impact Score (i.e., the higher a company’s Environmental Impact Score, the higher the company’s initial weight in the Index). A liquidity cap is then applied to each company’s weight to ensure that a hypothetical change in the Index's notional value would not correspond to more than a specified percentage of the daily trading value of any individual company. Any weight exceeding this cap is proportionally redistributed among the other constituents to determine the final weights.

Resources, Affiliations & Corporate Strategies:

ARK Invest Europe’s sustainability function is led by a dedicated in-house Sustainability Lead, who oversees ESG integration across portfolio construction, semi-annual rebalances, SFDR compliance, stewardship activity and impact reporting as a full-time equivalent role. ESG integration is overseen by the Sustainability Committee, which meets at least quarterly and comprises senior management of ARK Invest Europe (the “Promoter”) and IQ EQ Fund Management (the “Manager”), an external ESG professional and two independent directors. This Committee approves ESG-related policies and disclosures, reviews exclusion lists, stewardship priorities and escalation outcomes, monitors engagement activity, and helps ensure alignment with evolving regulatory standards and fiduciary responsibilities.

We also partner with specialist research firms, including Sustainable Market Strategies and Tematica Research, to develop bespoke thematic classifications and impact-scoring methodologies for our index funds, helping to ensure they focus on companies delivering measurable environmental and social benefits. On the external research side, we subscribe to MSCI ESG Manager for ESG business involvement screening, norms-based screens and EU Taxonomy alignment metrics, and we use ISS ProxyExchange for proxy voting execution, while retaining full authority and accountability for voting decisions.

Our RIZE Future First Policy underpins our sustainable-investment approach by combining rigorous exclusion screens, thematic classifications and proactive stewardship to ensure consistency and integrity across our sustainable thematic ETFs. This framework has now been complemented by the dedicated RIZE Future First Stewardship Policy, which sets out how stewardship is exercised across the RIZE suite through direct engagement, collaborative initiatives, proxy voting and escalation where material ESG risks remain insufficiently addressed. The policy also formalises record-keeping, annual review, and an escalation pathway that can ultimately lead to inclusion on the RIZE Future First Exclusion List and divestment at the next scheduled index rebalance where concerns remain material.

In addition, ARK Invest Europe has expanded its sustainability reporting capabilities through the launch of the RIZE Impact Calculator and a new suite of fund-level Impact Reports. The RIZE Impact Calculator is designed to translate an investment allocation into quantified environmental and social outputs, with underlying definitions, sources and calculation steps visible to investors. This framework underpins the annual Impact Reports, which provide fund-level reporting on tangible outcomes such as renewable energy enabled, emissions avoided, water saved, waste diverted and other theme-relevant indicators, using a consistent in-house impact methodology.

Throughout the organisation, ESG factors are incorporated into research, stewardship and risk-management processes, supported by internal training, shared reporting tools and cross-functional implementation by the sustainability, investment and compliance teams. ARK Invest Europe is also a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), participates in collaborative initiatives such as CDP’s Non-Disclosure Campaign, and is a member of organisations including ShareAction, and FAIRR. These affiliations support our commitment to continuous improvement in stewardship, engagement and the delivery of measurable environmental and social outcomes.

Dialshifter

This fund is helping to ‘shift the dial from brown to green’ by…

... providing exposure to United States companies “that are developing and applying innovative and impactful solutions to tackle the world’s most pressing climatic and environmental challenges”.. The Fund’s sustainable-investment taxonomy is guided by the six EU Taxonomy environmental objectives, and invests in firms innovating across renewable-energy generation, energy efficiency, sustainable transport, clean water, circular-economy solutions, pollution monitoring and remediation, and nature-based solutions. Our Rize Future First Policy includes climate-focussed exclusions, excluding companies involved in thermal coal and oil & gas extraction and nuclear power generation.

SDR Labelling:

Not eligible to use label (out of scope)