Canadian investment fund Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO) announced it had invested $400 million in Swedish battery maker Northvolt.
IMCO said on Tuesday the funds will enable Northvolt’s planned global expansion, aligned with IMCO and its “commitment to a deeply sustainable battery supply chain”.
The fund, which manages $73.3 billion of assets, said Northvolt has already begun producing batteries in a sustainable manner using fossil-free electricity. It noted Northvolt’s “strong focus on clean energy manufacturing, regional sourcing and closed-loop circularity via recycling”, which aims to offer the most sustainable batteries in the industry.
Earlier this month, BEST reported that Northvolt was under fire over its trading links with polluting Russian mining company Nornickel. It said in its defence it was working to secure environmental improvements at the Siberian operation.
Nornickel was fined $2 billion for a leak of 20,000 tonnes of diesel into a local river in May 2020, turning it red. It was dubbed the Arctic’s “worst environmental catastrophe”. It is also criticised for allowing high sulphur emissions into the atmosphere.
