Exchange Traded Concepts, an ETF incubator firm, filed paperwork with U.S. regulators to launch the U.S. market’s first ETF to tap into North American oil sands companies.

The Oklahoma City-based company, which rose from the ashes of the now-defunct ETF firm FaithShares last summer, pairs up with money managers to launch their own ETFs, much like Bethesda, Md.-based AdvisorShares, except that the latter is focused on actively managed funds.

The Sustainable North American Oil Sands ETF (NYSEArca: SNDS), which is based on an index that has the same name, will have Sustainable Wealth Management as its index provider and be advised by Exchange Traded Concepts, according to the filing. No fees were disclosed.

Oil sands are a type of petroleum deposit that produce what is often called synthetic crude oil, and have emerged as a new source of oil supplies thanks to technology that now allows for its extraction from the ground. While oil sands are found across the globe, Canada and Venezuela hold the largest deposits.

Still, the process of transforming oil sands into fuel is considered by some environmentalists and oil analysts to be detrimental to the environment. That fact looms as something of a dilemma to the energy industry and consumers alike, given the competing needs of oil and the issue of environmental protection.

“These companies may be at risk for environmental damage claims,” the filing noted, citing what it characterized as one of the chief risks surrounding the strategy.

SNDS will invest in U.S.- and Canada-listed companies with market capitalizations of at least $3 billion that are involved with everything from oil exploration, production, refinement, marketing, storage, transportation to equipment and service providers. At the end of December, the index comprised 33 securities.