Sustainability risks
A sustainability risk is an environmental, social or governance event or circumstance that, if it occurs, can cause the value of investment to fall.
Sustainability risks can come into play with equities, corporate bonds, government bonds, mortgage loans and derivative instruments in which we invest. Ecologically, you can think about climate change, water scarcity and pollution. Social themes include respect for labor and human rights and the safety of products and services. Board composition and remuneration, internal processes to prevent fraud and money laundering, and business ethics are examples of governance.
Impact on pension plan
Sustainability risks can arise in many ways. For example, a company or sector can be adversely affected by climate change, putting pressure on profits. And the value of shares or credit rating drops. Another example is if a company or country is negatively impacted in the news by environmental or labor issues, causing its reputation to deteriorate. This too can cause the value of shares or the creditworthiness of the country or company to fall.
If the value of investments drops due to sustainability risks, it will affect the pension you accrue. It may then be lower.
Governance
By including sustainability risks in our investment decisions, we ensure that our investments perform stably over the long term and represent sustainable, economic growth. Our principles are laid down in our sustainability policy. In addition, our attitude to risk is laid down in our risk policy. This risk attitude has been translated into the strategic investment policy, which contains investment guidelines and restrictions. We carry out checks at various levels to ensure that the implementation by the asset managers is and remains in line with our guidelines and restrictions.
Our remuneration policy also does not encourage sustainability risk-taking.
Instruments
To manage sustainability risks, we act as an active shareholder. We have a focus on corporate governance and climate when selecting stocks and bonds. And the companies we invest in must, as a minimum, comply with a number of international standards and treaties.