For us, responsible investing means in practice that ESG factors have been integrated into portfolio management. This is why we want to tell you about our way of investing responsibly and the recently published annual report.
Combatting climate change
In 2018, the impact of climate change and its mitigation continued to increase, and we embarked on a number of investor initiatives to make our contribution to companies at risk of climate change. For instance, we took part for the first time in a collaborative engagement targeting 39 companies in the oil and gas sector, which was within the PRI (the UN umbrella organisation for responsible investments) platform. We also took part in a collaborative engagement coordinated by the CDP (an independent organisation whose aim is to encourage companies to report on and manage their impact on the environment) sending letters to 419 companies to encourage these companies to report on their climate risks.
Developing ESG data base and reporting
Evli has an in-house ESG (factors related to the environment, society and good governance) database that makes it easy for portfolio managers to access the responsibility data for the investments. During 2018, the ESG database was developed and the information contained in it was added to a new portfolio management system, which strengthened the integration of responsibility information in the investment process. In 2018, we also developed our reporting on responsible investment - we publish ESG reports of all our equity and corporate bond funds, so that anyone can monitor the responsibility of our funds. This link gives an example of the ESG report for the Evli Nordic fund.
Systematic engagement
During 2018, systematic engagement on companies continued, and we were in contact with 10 companies, with the aim of engaging them to promote more responsible practices. The engagement cases were, for example, environmental problems, human rights, employee rights, reporting of responsibility factors and matters related to corporate governance. In addition, in 2018, one company that Evli engaged with was excluded from Evli’s investments due to a suspected norm violation.
No. 1 in responsible investments
In 2018, Evli was ranked best by clients in responsible investment in a survey directed at institutional clients conducted by KANTAR Sifo Prospera. In the coming years, the goal is to further develop the funds’ ESG reporting to even better align with clients’ and other stakeholders’ needs, and to develop the funds carbon footprint reporting and the factors that help to curb climate change.
Read The Responsible Investment Annual Report 2018 for a more detailed description of the progress, main themes and key figures of our responsible investments in 2018. If you have any questions about our report or responsible investment, please do not hesitate to contact us!
Interested in further reading? Visit our section on ESG, see the Video: Evli Easy ESG or read the interview Finland's State Pension Fund aims for sustainable profits.
