Responsible investments

Responsible investments mean taking into account environmental (E) and social (S) responsibility, and corporate governance (G) in the investment process. These issues, often labelled ESG together, have an impact on the sustainable development of a company and can also affect performance in asset management.

We consider responsible investments particularly important. A Sustainability Policy, established by SPK’s Board, provides guidance for our sustainability work and forms the basis for how we oversee and prioritize sustainability issues. According to this policy, SPK shall influence hired managers to continuously develop and improve their sustainability work. We strive to avoid investments in companies that breach, or risk breaching, the international guidelines, conventions and norms that SPK has set out to follow. These are described in Appendix 1 to SPK’s Sustainability Policy, but in summary consist of the following:

• UN Global Compact; ten principles about human rights, labor law issues, environment and corruption, based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the UN Convention Against Corruption.

• OECD Guidelines for multinational enterprises; partly overlapping UN Global Compact but also including aspects of how companies should manage information disclosure, consumer interests, science and technology, competition and taxation.

• International conventions on controversial weapons refer to cluster bombs, anti-personnel mines, nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, and biological weapons.

Our sustainability work is also guided by Agenda 2030, the global goals adopted by the UN member states and which constitute an agenda for sustainable development.

SPK works with fund solutions. Before we invest in a new fund, we conduct a thorough review of the external fund manager’s investment process and sustainability work, to assess whether it is compatible with SPK’s Sustainability Policy. We evaluate, monitor and follow-up on hired fund managers sustainability work through annual portfolio reviews based on the standards, international guidelines and conventions we follow, and the exposure limits we have set for company holdings in our funds, which are set out in Appendix 2 to our Sustainability Policy. Measuring carbon footprints and analyzing climate risks and climate impact are also included in the evaluation and monitoring of fund investments.

SPK is a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investments (PRI). This means we must follow six guiding principles for responsible investments with the aim of implementing and integrating environmental, social and corporate governance factors – together ESG factors – into investment processes.

As a fund unit holder, SPK cannot exercise the corporate governance made possible by participation at general meetings. However, to exert some influence on company management SPK participates together with other institutional investors, in a group for collaborative engagement with companies.

You can read more about SPK’s work with responsible investments in our Sustainability Policy and in our reports on sustainability and engagement (“Hållbarhetsrapport” and “Rapport Påverkansdialoger”, in Swedish only). You find these reports here: https://www.spk.se/hallbarhet/policys-och-rapporter/

Information related to the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) is available in Swedish here: https://www.spk.se/hallbarhet/ansvarsfulla-investeringar/hallbarhetsrelaterade-upplysningar/

A summary of SPK’s Statement on principal adverse impacts of investment decisions on sustainability factors is available in English here: Principal adverse impacts – Summary in English