High placement for Achmea in sustainable investment rankings

Achmea is the second highest placed insurer in a ranking by the Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (Nederlandse Vereniging van Beleggers voor Duurzame Ontwikkeling (VBDO)). The ranking identifies how sustainably the eighty largest pension funds and insurers invest, looking specifically at the impact of climate change. Achmea came ninth in the overall ranking (with eighty insurers and pension funds). Achmea’s strategy is to contribute to a healthy, safe and future-proof society, which is why climate change is embedded in our investment policy as an important priority.

Throughout 2019, VBDO examined the sustainability profile of thirty insurers and fifty pension funds. The investigation shone a spotlight on policy, implementation, management and transparency of sustainable investment.

As a large institutional investor with managed assets of more than €140 billion, Achmea has an influence on the companies it invests in. Last spring, Achmea tightened up its corporate responsibility policy and implemented further improvements. Climate is the key element in this. For example, Achmea recently announced that it would no longer invest in companies that generate more than 30% of their revenue from coal or from the extraction of oil from tar sands. The tightening of our policy follows the signing of the Paris climate goals and the ambitions of the government in this regard. Achmea has also committed itself to the Climate Agreement in the past year.

Willem van Duin, Chairman of Achmea’s Executive Board: “The fact that we were the second highest ranking insurer is on the one hand a great performance, but on the other it is above all an encouragement to continue as a socially responsible investor. As a cooperative insurer, we focus on long-term value creation and sustainable trading and investment is perfectly aligned with this. We aim to make a greater social impact with our investments. Our engagement programme, which involves us engaging actively with companies and entering into agreements to encourage them to operate their businesses more responsibly, is an important contribution to this.”

You can find the full report here.