Promotion

Impact funds

Invest in companies that contribute to meeting UN sustainability goals.

Systematic focus on returns with societal value

Sustainable funds include a comprehensive sustainability approach that goes beyond the application of exclusion criteria and the reduction of ESG risks. In direct investments, we have set ourselves the goal of investing only in companies and countries that meet our strict sustainability criteria or whose business activities have a particularly strong sustainable effect.
With a Sustainable investment fund, you receive an investment solution that:

excludes controversial companies
selects companies belonging to the best in their category according to ESG criteria (best-in-class)
may have a different risk/return profile compared to that of a traditional investment

Three-stage filter process

To determine the Sustainable investment universe, companies undergo a three-stage filter process for direct investments, which filters out around 70% of the originally eligible companies in the investment universe.

1. step in the filter process: Exclusion criteria

We use exclusion criteria to exclude companies that contribute to the biggest environmental problems and social risks worldwide. This process excludes around 20% of all companies in the investment universe.

Global risks	Exclusion
Anthropogenic climate change	Companies with their own coal reserves Extraction of fossil fuels Operation of fossil-fuelled power plants Manufacture of automobiles and aircraft Airlines Countries: Paris Climate Agreement not ratified
Endangerment of the Earth's atmosphere	Generation of substances which deplete the ozone layer
Decline in species diversity	Genetic engineering (release of GMOs) Non-sustainable forestry Non-sustainable fisheries and aquaculture Non-sustainable palm oil plantations
Risk to society and health	Manufacture of weapons and military equipment Manufacture of tobacco and smokers' accessories Production of alcohol Child labour (in own company) Gambling Pornography (producer) Nuclear energy Countries: Expansion of nuclear energy Countries: Use of the death penalty Countries: Violation of basic rights relating to democracy and human rights Countries: Particularly high military budget

2. step in the filter process: ESG assessment

The ESG ratings of companies per sector and region are compared with those of peers. Investments can be made in all companies with an ESG rating above a defined threshold (best-in-class). The ESG criteria cover:

Environmental (E) issues such as CO₂e data and water consumption
Social (S) issues such as working conditions and employee diversity
Corporate governance (G) such as shareholder rights, remuneration of management or quality of reporting.

In this step, a further 50% of the companies in the original investment universe are eliminated.

3. step in the filter process: Sustainable investment universe

After companies in the investment universe have passed the exclusion criteria and ESG assessment, around 30% remain. These form our Sustainable investment universe, which then undergoes the impact assessment.
The core factor of our Sustainable approach is the impact assessment, which we use to systematically reduce the sustainable investment to a few companies/countries which, due to their strong contribution to sustainable development ("Sustainability Impact"), are growing at an above-average rate and generating positive social benefits. We focus on the six investment areas that contribute to sustainable development:

Energy: renewable energy, energy efficiency
Health: access to basic care, maintaining good health
Mobility: public transport, private transport
Finance: access to financial services, financial infrastructure
Resources: water, resource efficiency
Knowledge: education/research, networking

These issues are among the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

CO₂e reduction

In the Sustainable investment funds, the weighted carbon intensity is generally significantly lower than in the respective benchmark index, as CO₂e-intensive companies with no climate strategy are avoided. No investment is made in the promotion of fossil fuels, in the operation of fossil-fuelled power plants, in airlines or in manufacturers of automobiles and aircraft. We have been following this investment philosophy for Sustainable investment funds for over twenty years.