Sustainability-oriented funds for sustainable investment
Union Investment sees sustainability as part of its cooperative identity. It is one of Germany’s leading asset managers for sustainable investment, with more than 30 years’ experience of actively managing sustainability-oriented funds. As a fiduciary investor that is concerned about the future, Union Investment champions efforts aimed at achieving a healthy living environment, high social standards, and good corporate governance. It is also helping to drive social change in order to create a sustainable financial system.
Union Investment is one of the largest sustainable investment providers in Germany. Assets under management of €128.7 billion were invested sustainably in accordance with articles 8 and 9 of the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) as at the end of 2023. Of this amount, €90.6 billion was invested in sustainable assets in accordance with its self-imposed ESG minimum requirements.
Union Investment aims to support the sustainability efforts of clients in its institutional asset management business and continues to expand its product range with a focus on sustainability-oriented institutional mutual funds. In addition, it intends to broaden its offering of sustainability-oriented products that are geared to the needs of retail customers. Under its climate strategy, which dates back to 2016, Union Investment plans for its securities and commercial real estate portfolios to be climate-neutral by 2050. In its operations, Union Investment aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2045 and reduce carbon emissions by 65 percent by 2030.
In its securities business, Union Investment pursues the objective of analyzing the financial implications of ESG aspects on companies and countries in order to be able to make better investment decisions. It also considers risks associated with climate change when making its investment decisions and has adopted a climate strategy for the portfolio management of securities products in which it has committed to reducing financed greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent compared with 2019 levels by 2030 and achieving climate neutrality by 2050. To this end, Union Investment engages with companies in a focused, systematic manner. This is because it can have the biggest influence on the companies that, measured in terms of the emissions financed by the assets, are among the biggest polluters. Applying this focused approach, Union Investment is currently targeting three-quarters of all emissions financed by the corporate bonds and equities held.