The consequences of climate change can no longer be ignored, so how can investing sustainably add value for investors and companies?
We firmly believe that investors have the ability to effect real change, and that there doesn’t need to be a trade-off between positive returns and sustainability. In fact, we believe sustainable investing can result in enhanced overall risk-adjusted outcomes for clients, primarily by protecting against downside risks and identifying opportunities associated with environmental, social and governance-related issues.
By determining long-term investment opportunities, anticipating and managing financially material risks, engaging with relevant third parties, and creating products and services that take ESG considerations into account, we believe our investments could yield greater success for our clients while positively affecting society and the environment.
Our SI ambition - what 4 areas are we focusing on?
- Delivering innovative sustainable solutions
- Taking ESG integration to the next level
- Driving positive change through stewardship and engagement
- Leading industry collaborations to maximize impact
Delivering innovative sustainable solutions
- Expanding our offerings
- Focusing our product innovation around people and planet
- Increasing transparency on sustainable outcomes through enhanced reporting
Taking ESG integration to the next level
- Enhancing our ESG methodology and data sets to align with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and to identify issuer level impacts on growth opportunities.
- Strengthening our exclusions policy to reinforce our commitment to the low-carbon transition and the UN Global Compact standards
Driving positive change through stewardship and engagement
- Extending our engagement program beyond climate to include other UN SDG themes
- Reinforcing our engagement dialogues with companies and thereby driving progress towards meeting the UN SDGs
- Good governance is a central prerequisite for sustainable outcomes in all our portfolios
Leading industry collaborations to maximize impact
- Driving positive change through industry collaboration e.g. our role as a leading member of ClimateAction100+
- Collaborating with a number of clients with shared ambitions around climate and social impact
- Partnering with like-minded asset managers to promote the transition to a low carbon society
Why engagement can be effective in improving corporate sustainability
We are committed to engaging with companies to help them transition to a lower carbon future and play an important role in solving today’s climate change emergency. Stewardship is an integral part of our traditional investment process. We firmly believe that engagement is a two-way dialogue through which we can work to influence a company’s behavior.
We prioritize corporate engagement based on an assessment of financial exposure, high ESG risks, poor performance on thematic issues of concern and presence of controversies.
For more information, please contact UBS Asset Management Belgium.