Specialist environmental investment company Impax and global index company FTSE Group have teamed up in the UK to launch the FTSE Environmental Opportunities All-Share index.

The new index, made up of 450 constituents, will cover alternative energy and energy efficiency, water treatment and pollution control, and waste technologies and resource management. It is one of a series of environmental indices that Impax and FTSE are currently developing together.

Impax will research the constituents from the FTSE Global Equity index series. Selected constituents must demonstrate that a minimum of 20 per cent of their business comes from environmental markets or technologies. This index will include these companies and offers a broader environmental exposure opportunity to investors.

Will Oulton, head of responsible investment at FTSE, said: "The index will appeal to institutional and retail investors who want to gain exposure to and track the performance of those companies who are transforming their businesses to increasingly source revenues from global environmental markets."

The new index is available for investors to use as the basis of structured products, exchange traded funds and index funds. Russell Investments has already licensed the index for an environmental technology multi-manager fund.

Earlier this year Impax and FTSE launched the FTSE ET50 Index, made up of the largest fifty pure play environmental technology companies by market capitalisation worldwide, with an investable market capitaliation of $161,216 million.