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Manulife Investment Management Shares Analysis and Investment Insights within Natural Capital, TCFD and SRI Reports

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TORONTO, Aug. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Manulife Investment Management (Manulife IM), the world’s largest manager of natural capital with over $16 billion in assets under management in timberland and agriculture1, has recently released three reports detailing how it incorporates financially material climate- and nature-related investment considerations into its asset management and portfolio construction capabilities. Interested market participants can use the insights from Manulife IM’s Natural Capital Sustainability report,  Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) report and Sustainable and Responsible Investing (SRI) report, for deeper awareness about sustainable investing and to assess various investment risks and opportunities across public and private market asset classes.

The reports highlight Manulife IM’s commitment in seeking to deliver strong long-term investment performance, the importance of natural capital to human health, and the opportunity for timberland and agriculture assets to bring value to portfolios and to the planet.  As an example, within its climate and natural capital investment solutions, Manulife IM has a strategy that provides investors with an opportunity to invest in timberlands in a way that creates high integrity carbon credits through enhanced management practices which purposefully add to the stored carbon in the forest. 

“We are excited to share these reports with market participants as we believe that climate-related risks and other sustainability factors can have a material effect on long-term financial value and, as a result, on our clients’ investment objectives,” said Paul Lorentz, President & CEO of Manulife IM. “Throughout all of our investment processes, we seek to incorporate all financially material risks, including sustainability factors, as our primary goal is to enhance the returns of the capital we manage on behalf of our clients.”

Manulife IM’s most recent Natural Capital Sustainability report highlights the importance of natural capital to institutional investment portfolios, the dependency the world has on these assets, and how these investments can create value beyond the physical products they generate. Highlights include:

Manulife IM’s timberland investment properties planted over 50 million seedlings, produced lumber to build more than 100,000 houses, enough fiberwood to make approximately 2.2 million tons of paper, and yielded enough biomass to produce electricity for the equivalent of 1,500 American homes for a year;Manulife IM’s integration of regenerative practices across its agriculture portfolio continues to focus on producing more food with a smaller footprint. During 2023, 100% of client properties reported using at least one regenerative practice and 78% of properties use four or more regenerative practices; andProgress reports on the firm’s five nature targets, aligned with the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge that are on track to be fulfilled by 2025. The targets include improving collaboration and knowledge sharing on assessment methodologies, incorporating biodiversity into ESG policies, assessing the impact of investments on biodiversity, using science-based targets to improve biodiversity impact, and annual reporting to measure and assess progress toward biodiversity goals.

“Natural capital is not just a concept; it’s a measurable and monetizable reality that has intrinsic value in supporting the global economy,” said Brian Kernohan, Chief Sustainability Officer, Manulife Investment Management. “We believe nature is a mispriced asset that provides true economic and societal value for the benefit of all.”

The latest TCFD report outlines how Manulife IM incorporates climate-related risks and opportunities into investment decisions through appropriate governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets.

Highlights from the TCFD report include:

90% of Manulife IM ‘s global real estate equity portfolio earning certification of a green building standard, such as LEED, ENERGY STAR, or BOMA BEST;2Manulife IM removing an estimated 1.5 million tons of CO2e from the atmosphere by its managed forests and farms on a five-year rolling average; andManulife IM seeks to increase access to the number and variety of sustainable investing options available to its clients.

Manulife IM’s latest SRI report provides insight into the firm’s approach to sustainable investing, including its governance, stewardship information, its scorecard from the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), and other sustainability milestones and outcomes.

Highlights from the SRI report this year include the firm’s:

Publication of its inaugural nature report aligned with the recommendations of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), outlining the firm’s approach to managing nature-related risks and opportunities in its timberland and agriculture businesses;Achievement of a GRESB 5 Star rating for the sixth consecutive year;3Formalization of its sustainable investing strategy for its private equity and credit platform, which included establishing near-term priorities and longer-term commitments;Development of a firmwide client-directed exclusions framework; andPublication of its water statement, which recognizes the fundamental importance of water to human health, livelihoods, ecosystems, the global economy, and the future of asset management.

“As we navigate this dynamic space, our reporting looks to provide comprehensive insights to help drive positive change and foster long-term sustainability through our investment strategies. We’re committed to continue enhancing our reporting so that all our stakeholders can get a clear picture of our efforts to manage climate impact and risk exposures as well as enhance long-term value creation,” concluded Mr. Kernohan.

Please find more information about Manulife IM’s approach to sustainable investing online here:  https://www.manulifeim.com/institutional/global/en/sustainability.

About Manulife Investment Management

Manulife Investment Management is the brand for the global wealth and asset management segment of Manulife Financial Corporation (NYSE: MFC). Our mission is to make decisions easier and lives better by empowering investors for a better tomorrow. Serving more than 19 million individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members, we believe our global reach, complementary businesses, and the strength of our parent company position us to help investors capitalize on today’s emerging global trends. We provide our clients access to public and private investment solutions across equities, fixed income, multi-asset, alternative, and sustainability-linked strategies, such as natural capital, to help them make more informed financial decisions and achieve their investment objectives. Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit manulifeim.com.

It should not be assumed that any ESG or sustainability initiatives, standards, or metrics described herein will apply to each asset in which Manulife Investment Management invests or that any ESG or sustainability initiatives, standards, or metrics described have applied to any individual prior investment of Manulife Investment Management. There is no guarantee that any initiatives or anticipated developments described herein will ultimately be successful or achieve anticipated outcomes. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors are only some of many considerations that Manulife Investment Management takes into account when making investment decisions, and other considerations can be expected in certain circumstances to outweigh ESG considerations. Any ESG or sustainability initiatives described will be implemented with respect to a portfolio investment solely to the extent Manulife Investment Management determines such initiative is consistent with its broader investment goals. Individual portfolio management teams may hold different views and make different investment decisions for different clients, and views may change over time. Investors should always read the current investment services information or fund offering documents before deciding to select an investment manager or to invest in a fund.

1.

IPE research, as of February 2024. Ranking is based on total natural capital assets under management (AUM), which includes forestry/timberland and agriculture/farmland AUM. Firms were asked to provide AUM and the as of dates vary from 12/31/2022 to 12/31/2023.

2.

Based on square footage of the gross floor area or building size, of properties in the global portfolio. Totals from different certification standards do not sum as properties with multiple certifications are only counted once. Certifications are provided by LEED, ENERGY STAR Certification, BOMA BEST, GBCA Green Star, BCA Green Mark, NABERS, CASBEE, BOMA 360, and Fitwel.

3.

Based on GRESB results released October 2023 that cover the 2022 time period. Manulife Investment Management paid a per fund submission fee, per year. The GRESB Rating is an overall measure of how well sustainability issues are integrated into the management and practices of companies and funds. For more information about the GRESB Real Estate Assessment, please see gresb.com/nl-en/real-estate-assessment.

Asia:
Carl Wong
Carl_KK_Wong@manulifeam.com

North America and Europe:
Elizabeth Bartlett
Elizabeth_Bartlett@manulife.com

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/C O R R E C T I O N — Applied Intuition, Inc./

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May 2, 2026

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In the news release, Applied Intuition Collaborates with Heidelberg Materials to Advance Innovation in Quarry Operations with Autonomous Haulage Fleets, issued 30-Apr-2026 by Applied Intuition, Inc. over PR Newswire, we are advised by the company that changes have been made. The complete, corrected release follows, with additional details at the end:

Applied Intuition Collaborates with Heidelberg Materials to Advance Innovation in Quarry Operations with Autonomous Haulage Fleets

Deployment brings intelligent, vehicle-based autonomy to Australia, establishing a new operating model for construction and mining environments.

SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 30, 2026 /CNW/ — Applied Intuition, Inc., a leader in physical AI, today announced its collaboration with Heidelberg Materials, one of the world’s largest integrated manufacturers of building materials and solutions, to deploy autonomous haulage systems for Heidelberg Materials’ quarry operations, starting at a site in Australia.

Applied Intuition will provide its Self-Driving System (SDS) for Construction to support autonomous haulage operations within Heidelberg Materials’ fleet of construction and mining vehicles in Australia. The deployment marks the next real-world application of Applied Intuition’s autonomy platform in industrial environments. Upon successful completion, it will support the expansion of autonomous operations within Heidelberg Materials’ broader Australian network.

The collaboration also challenges the standard industry model. While autonomy solutions traditionally target the largest quarry sites, this system is designed for smaller operations, including those running just two 40-ton trucks, making it deployable across quarry sites of varying size worldwide.

“No two quarry or construction sites operate the same way, with different layouts, constraints and economics,” said Qasar Younis, co-founder and CEO of Applied Intuition. “We’ve built our platform to adapt to that reality. This partnership shows we can take the same core system used in large mining operations and apply it to smaller, infrastructure-constrained quarry sites, scaling it across hundreds of unique locations.”

For Heidelberg Materials, the partnership is aimed at enhancing safety and operational performance. It also reflects the need for an autonomy solution that can operate at large sites and smaller ones too, whereas traditional autonomous haulage systems are often too infrastructure-heavy or costly to scale. For Applied Intuition, it serves as a proof point that its autonomy platform is designed not just for one-off deployments, but for global scale across construction, quarry and mining environments of any size.

Applied Intuition’s system runs directly on the vehicle, with integrated perception, decision-making and safety systems onboard, enabling reliable operation without constant connectivity or heavy site infrastructure.

The collaboration builds on Applied Intuition’s growing presence in construction and mining autonomy and reinforces its broader physical AI strategy. The same core platform has already been deployed in other industries, including trucking and defense, with learnings from each domain contributing to continuous system improvements. Applied Intuition’s SDS platform strategy also enables the company to bring technologies proven in other domains into construction and mining, helping accelerate development and deployment.

Through this project, Applied Intuition demonstrates the range of its autonomy platform, from some of the largest mining trucks in the world to smaller quarry vehicles operating in constrained, lower-infrastructure environments. Together, these deployments highlight the company’s approach to building scalable autonomy for construction and mining from the ground up.

To learn more about how Applied Intuition is building the future of construction autonomy, visit applied.co.

About Applied Intuition
Applied Intuition, Inc. is powering the future of physical AI. Founded in 2017 and now valued at $15 billion, the Silicon Valley company is creating the digital infrastructure needed to bring intelligence to every moving machine on the planet. Applied Intuition services the automotive, defense, trucking, construction, mining and agriculture industries in three core areas: tools and infrastructure, operating systems and autonomy. Eighteen of the top 20 global automakers, as well as the United States military and its allies, trust the company’s solutions to deliver physical intelligence. Applied Intuition is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices in Washington, D.C.; San Diego; Ft. Walton Beach, Florida; Ann Arbor, Michigan; London; Stuttgart; Munich; Stockholm; Gothenburg, Sweden; Bangalore; Seoul; and Tokyo. Learn more at applied.co.

Correction: An earlier version of this release incorrectly stated the location of the site noted in the first paragraph.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/applied-intuition-collaborates-with-heidelberg-materials-to-advance-innovation-in-quarry-operations-with-autonomous-haulage-fleets-302758224.html

SOURCE Applied Intuition, Inc.

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MOREH Demonstrates Production-Ready LLM Inference on Tenstorrent Galaxy, Achieving DGX A100-Class Performance with Improved Cost Efficiency

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May 2, 2026

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Reduces HBM Costs with GPU–Tenstorrent Heterogeneous Distributed Serving
First unveiled at Tenstorrent’s launch event, TT-Deploy, in San Francisco on May 1

SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Moreh, an AI infrastructure software company, led by CEO Gangwon Jo, announced that it has successfully validated LLM inference performance on the Tenstorrent Galaxy Wormhole system using its proprietary ‘MoAI Inference Framework.’

Based on tests across leading Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) models—including GPT-OSS, Qwen, GLM, and DeepSeek—Moreh achieved LLM inference performance on Tenstorrent Galaxy Wormhole matching or surpassing NVIDIA DGX A100-class systems, demonstrating a compelling alternative to conventional GPU-centric AI infrastructure.

Moreh also improved cost efficiency by implementing a disaggregated serving architecture that combines GPUs with Tenstorrent Wormhole chips. By utilizing Tenstorrent processors as dedicated prefill accelerators, the company reduced reliance on high-cost HBM and lowered overall infrastructure costs.

The results were first unveiled at Tenstorrent’s launch event, TT-Deploy, held on May 1 in San Francisco.

As a strategic partner of Tenstorrent and a major external contributor to Metalium, Moreh showcased a live LLM inference demo at the event. Building on its experience operating AMD GPU-based production environments in real-world data centers, the company presented its latest technical achievements in ‘Production-Ready LLM Inference on Tenstorrent Galaxy.’

MoAI Inference Framework is a disaggregated inference solution that enables unified operation of heterogeneous GPUs and NPUs—including NVIDIA, AMD, and Tenstorrent—within a single cluster. This allows enterprises to build flexible AI infrastructure strategies without vendor lock-in.

Moreh CEO Gangwon Jo stated, “Achieving production-grade LLM inference performance and stability on Tenstorrent-based systems marks a significant milestone,” and added, “We will continue to enhance performance through deeper optimization across heterogeneous architectures and closer integration with Tenstorrent NPUs.”

Moreh is developing its own core AI infrastructure engine and, through its foundation LLM subsidiary Motif Technologies, is building end-to-end capabilities spanning both infrastructure and model domains. Simultaneously, the company is making its mark in the global market through collaborations with key partners such as AMD, Tenstorrent, and SGLang.

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SOURCE Moreh

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US Startup PerZeption Inc. Announces Collaboration with Alcon Research

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May 2, 2026

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BOSTON, MA, May. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Advancements in vision correction evaluation require methods that offer both precision and efficiency in detecting clinically meaningful visual differences. Addressing this need, PerZeption is set to present new data validating its AIM+ CSF modeling technology at the Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) annual meeting.

Attendees are invited to learn more about this innovative approach during the poster session on May 4, 2026, from 11:15 AM to 1:00 PM, at posterboard #0941.

“We are very excited to collaborate with Alcon, one of the largest companies within the Ophthalmology sector worldwide. “, Dr. Jan Skerswetat said. “The results, presented by Dr Derek Nankivil, indicate that our technology enables rapid, repeatable, and highly sensitive assessment of contrast vision.”

The abstract, titled ‘AIM+ CSF modeling enables efficient detection of clinically meaningful visual differences,’ outlines how PerZeption’s technology supports sensitive, low-burden visual assessment for vision correction evaluation. Data indicates that with approximately six adaptive displays of stimuli and two repeats, studies show around 20 subjects can achieve 90% power to detect a 1 JND (Just Noticeable Difference) change in AULCSF (Area Under the Log Contrast Sensitivity Function). This research also demonstrates AIM+ CSF’s stable repeatability in less than 3 minutes, absence of bias, and robust performance, validating its role as an effective tool for objective visual performance evaluation.

This joint effort highlights a shared dedication to advancing ophthalmology research and developing precise tools for visual assessment. The ARVO annual meeting serves as the world’s foremost event for ophthalmology research, offering a vital platform for sharing scientific breakthroughs and fostering dialogue within the global vision science community.

“In addition to all the exciting research presentations that leverage PerZeption technology at this years’ ARVO meeting, we are also proud to be showcasing PerZeption’s battery of functional tests at our booth, #4027.” Dr. Skerswetat added and noted that there will be opportunities to try out our technology.

This presentation at ARVO represents a significant step in the validation and recognition of PerZeption’s contributions to advanced visual assessment technologies.

About PerZeption Inc
PerZeption delivers vision testing with a rapid, self-administered, and adaptive psychophysical platform delivered via cloud-based software on standard tablets or all-in-one computers. Our flagship platform, Angular Indication Measurement (AIM), enables testing of over 20 visual functions. Our novel approach equips researchers and clinicians with a comprehensive range of visual functions and introduces new tests for which there are no currently available devices. We reduce chairtime. Self-administered tests on a single device in combination with proprietary methods that rapidly assess vision, reduce user’s burden and require minimal training or space, unlike bulky, specialized single-use devices. Finally, cloud-based delivery supports secure in-clinic and remote testing, ensuring consistent, trackable results for clinicians and pharmaceutical companies. 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-startup-perzeption-inc-announces-collaboration-with-alcon-research-302760563.html

SOURCE PerZeption

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