This time we’re going to discuss sustainable investment in greater depth. The members’ satisfaction survey showed that you’re interested in this subject. On the website, we explain how our asset managers take sustainability aspects into account when making investment decisions. To ensure that this happens, we have set out our investment principles. The interests of all those involved must be the focus in the long term.
Returns
It goes without saying that, first and foremost, we believe that it is important to get good returns from our investments. Bearing that in mind, we can make choices that are socially responsible.
No to cluster munitions; yes to CO2 reductions
Investment managers select investments for us based on narrowly defined mandates. On the one hand, they are defined in negative terms. For instance: we do not invest in companies that make cluster munitions or use child labour. They can also be defined in positive terms. For instance: we invest in companies that comply with national and international regulations and international guidelines or that focus on CO2 reductions. Measuring progress is important, but unfortunately there is as yet no standard for this.
Environment and security
Major pension funds that invest directly in companies use dialogue and sometimes pressure to ensure that companies adjust their business operations, for instance in terms of the environment and security. They sometimes part with companies if their efforts in this respect are in vain. At our fund, our investment managers do this for us. That’s who we mean when we say ‘we’. You can imagine that sectoral pension funds find particular issues important – for instance, dentists may not want to be involved in sweet factories. Another recent example is Wageningen University, where employees protested against meat companies in Brazil who are responsible for deforestation.