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The need to incorporate sustainability principles in our investment processes is one of the most pressing CSR issues for a financial institution like Fortis. This is clearly one of the areas in which we can have the greatest impact, both by incorporating sustainability criteria into our investment practices and by offering sustainable investment products.
At Fortis, sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) means generating both financial and sustainable value. We offer our clients products and services that satisfy their goal of achieving healthy investment returns and their desire to contribute to a better world.
We have adopted sustainable investment practices through both our asset manager Fortis Investments and our private bank Fortis MeesPierson.
Asset Management
Fortis Investments has a long history in sustainable and responsible investment management. It further strengthened its commitment to sustainable investment in 2007 by endorsing the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).
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UN Principles for Responsible Investment
On 5 October 2007, Fortis Investments announced that it had signed the ‘Principles for Responsible Investment’, a United Nations initiative. Fortis Investments will share the ESG analysis produced by the SRI Investment Centre with all the other Investment Centres. At the same time, Fortis Investments is looking at ways of incorporating ESG analysis when exercising voting rights, by including a focus on adequate ESG reporting in its proxy voting policy. It will also work to increase disclosure and the sharing of information within the investment industry, and to raise awareness of the link between ESG issues and investment performance. |
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Fortis Investments established a dedicated SRI Investment Centre in Frankfurt, which has launched a broad range of SRI products. Examples are the FLF Bond SRI Euro, investing in bonds from countries that can demonstrate high sustainability standards, and the FLF Equity Environment Sustainability World, which invests in companies whose products help to solve global environmental problems relating to climate change, waste and water pollution.
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Fortis Footprint Calculator
 Fortis Investments has created an innovative approach to quantifying environmental benefits in the management of environmental sustainability funds. The new approach, which was jointly developed by Fortis Investments and Trucost, builds on the increasing recognition that investors regard environmental impacts as costs. It was launched in tandem with an innovative environmental footprint calculator that helps people understand the impact their daily lives have on theenvironment. The Fortis Footprint Calculator (www.footprint.fortis.com) invites individuals and households to calculate their environmental footprint online via a series of questions about their daily consumption patterns. They can then reduce their footprint by adopting recommended lifestyle changes, with the option of counteracting any residual footprint by investing in the fund.
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Private banking
Fortis MeesPierson, our private bank in the Netherlands, also caters for the growing demand for responsible investment. In 2005 it teamed up with Triodos Bank to create Triodos MeesPierson Sustainable Investment Management. This joint venture offers high-quality sustainable asset management services to the clients of both parent companies. Triodos MeesPierson marries Fortis MeesPierson’s experience in sustainable asset management with Triodos’s expertise in sustainability. Research is carried out by Dutch Sustainability Research (DSR), a joint venture of Triodos Bank, pension fund PGGM and Fortis MeesPierson. Financial research and strategy are sourced from the private bank’s global investment process.
For an overview of last year’s performance in sustainable investment, please refer to our annual CSR Report.
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