Sustainable investment and financing
Integrating ESG into our investment processes
Sustainable investment requires clear decisions and a consistent approach. At Achmea, we use a number of tools that help us to clarify risks, prevent wrong choices, and increase our positive impact.
For this purpose, we integrate ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) factors into our investment processes. We measure the environmental and social risks and impact of our investments. For example, we consider:
- the carbon footprint of our investments,
- the energy labels of our real estate and mortgage portfolio, and
- violations of international guidelines relating to matters such as labour standards and human rights.
Setting standards
Some activities do not reflect who we are. For this reason, we exclude companies and countries associated with serious and systemic violations of human rights or other international standards, with no prospect of improvement. We evaluate this against the principles of the UN Global Compact and the OECD guidelines.
Similarly, we do not invest in sectors that are at odds with our values, such as tobacco, controversial weapons and highly polluting fossil fuels like coal and tar sands oil.
Having an influence: discussions for change
We aim to achieve change through dialogue and engagement. We have an engagement programme in which we discuss topics such as climate, biodiversity, human rights and health. We describe the progress of our engagements in our Socially Responsible Investment Annual Report. The standards we use in this are included in our engagement guidelines.
We also use our voting rights as shareholders to encourage companies to make sustainable changes to their strategic direction. Since we cannot attend all shareholder meetings ourselves, we use specialised service providers to execute our voting policy. A separate register (Vote Disclosure System) enables tracking of how votes were cast on our behalf at shareholder meetings.
Making an impact: investing in progress
We also want to contribute to positive change by means of our investments. We therefore invest a portion of our assets in projects and funds that make a measurable contribution to a better world. We believe that impact is only genuine if it is intentional, measurable and has no harmful side effects. We take this approach within various categories, as follows:
- Green and social bonds – financial instruments issued by governments, international institutions or businesses, with the proceeds explicitly being used to finance sustainable or social projects. These projects are geared towards generating renewable energy, improving energy efficiency in buildings, sustainable transport and sustainable water and waste management.
- Impact funds – investments in funds that pursue social impact in areas such as financial inclusion and health care. Examples include the Triodos Microfinance Fund, the Leapfrog Financial Inclusion Fund and the Achmea IM PE Partnership Fund - Healthy People And Planet.
- Real estate – for example investments in lifetime homes, residential care complexes and health care centres. We do this to help enable elderly people to live independently for longer, and to combat loneliness and make health care accessible close to home.
- Infrastructure – investments in renewable energy such as wind and solar farms and energy storage systems.
Our asset manager, Achmea Investment Management, has impact investing as one of their strategic priorities.