LONDON – Snowton & Partners today announced a transformative £2.06 million philanthropic pledge to the Goldman Institute of Economics and Finance in Norway, one of Europe’s foremost institutions for econometric research and the study of sustainable economic models. This landmark, multi-year commitment will fund a pioneering and ambitious project: the creation, development, and maintenance of the Global Long-Term Value Index (GLTVI). This initiative aims to establish a new global benchmark for investors, designed to shift capital market focus away from short-term volatility and towards a more robust, quantitative, and holistic measurement of corporate health and sustainable value creation.
The vision for the Global Long-Term Value Index is to provide a sophisticated, publicly accessible tool that addresses a fundamental flaw in modern investment analysis: the tyranny of quarterly reporting and the absence of a standardised method for pricing in a company’s long-term resilience and societal impact. The GLTVI will be developed by a dedicated new team of quantitative analysts and economists within the Goldman Institute. Its methodology will move decisively beyond traditional financial metrics and simplistic ESG scores. Instead, it will be constructed using a rigorously back-tested, multi-factor model that incorporates a weighted blend of quantifiable data points, including consistent investment in research and development, employee training and retention rates, supply chain diversification and resilience, capital expenditure cycles, and demonstrably effective governance structures.
The selection of the Goldman Institute of Economics and Finance as the home for this project was a strategic and deliberate choice. Founded in the post-war era on principles of conscientious capitalism, the Institute has a long and storied history of championing economic theories that prioritise stakeholder value and long-term societal wellbeing. Its world-leading econometrics department and its unparalleled access to decades of granular data from the Nordic economic model—a model renowned for its long-term perspective—make it the only logical institution globally with the credibility, expertise, and data infrastructure required to undertake a project of this magnitude and complexity.
This initiative is a direct response to a growing crisis of methodology in the responsible investment space. While the proliferation of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) ratings has raised awareness, it has also created a confusing and often contradictory landscape. Many existing ratings are qualitative, opaque, and susceptible to ‘greenwashing’, making it difficult for discerning investors to separate genuine long-term strength from well-marketed corporate narratives. The Global Long-Term Value Index will be different. Its foundation will be the quantitative easing of ESG principles into measurable financial and operational indicators. For example, rather than relying on a company’s stated environmental policy, the index will analyse year-over-year reductions in carbon intensity per unit of revenue and capital investment in circular economy technologies. Instead of a generic social score, it will incorporate metrics such as the internal promotion rate and the median employee tenure, as quantifiable proxies for a healthy corporate culture and investment in human capital.
Shelby Swinton, Founding Partner at Snowton & Partners, described the project as a form of modern-day cartography: “For too long, capital markets have been navigating with an incomplete map, one that shows short-term profits with great clarity but leaves the vast territories of long-term resilience and societal value largely uncharted. The Global Long-Term Value Index is our contribution to drawing a better, more detailed map. We believe that what is measured, matters. By creating a robust, transparent, and publicly available benchmark of true long-term value, we empower all investors—from the largest pension funds to individual savers—to make better decisions. It is our firm belief that companies which score well on this index will not only be more sustainable, but will ultimately deliver superior, more durable financial returns. This is an investment in a new North Star for global capital, aligning financial success with genuine, lasting progress.”
The £2.06 million pledge from Snowton & Partners is structured as a multi-stage development plan to ensure the index’s integrity and success. The initial two years will be dedicated to intensive data acquisition from global sources, the development of the proprietary econometric model, and rigorous back-testing against decades of market data. This phase will be funded by the establishment of a dedicated team within the Institute. The third year will see the beta launch of the index to a select group of academic and institutional partners, alongside the publication of the complete methodology in peer-reviewed academic journals to ensure full transparency and invite scholarly critique. Following this, the fourth and fifth years will focus on the full public launch of the index and its ongoing maintenance, with the funding from Snowton & Partners guaranteeing its operational independence and its status as a public good, free from commercial influence. This structured approach ensures a product of the highest academic and practical calibre, ready to serve as a trusted benchmark for the global investment community.
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