We’ve zoomed through the first quarter of 2024 already. Although the arrival of spring here in the Nordics has brought us steadily brighter days, we have also faced darker developments from the sustainability perspective.
Most alarmingly, we continue to see a rise in harms and violations of human rights associated with Conflict Affected and High-Risk Areas (CAHRA). Among the difficult decisions we made in the quarter were several exclusions, including that of the global technology company IBM, based on the impact of its services contributing to enforcing what the United Nations assessed to be a regime of apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPT).
In a related track of work, since last year we have begun collaborating with a group of NGOs and investors to develop and pilot a process for identifying, analysing, prioritising, and managing portfolio risk linked to business operations and relationships in CAHRA.
Elsewhere on the engagement front, during this quarter, several collaborative engagements we are involved in, such as the Climate Action 100+ and the NA100, reached significant milestones along their plans, which you can read about in our section on Active ownership.
For the theme of this issue, we focus on transparency, an important enabler for sustainable investments, as commitments need to equate to action. Our clients require and deserve both transparency and clarity about how their capital is invested; what we are doing to mitigate and mange ESG risks; and what actions we are taking on their behalf through our engagements.
In this vein we have recently begun pre-disclosing our voting decisions several days in advance, on our client-accessible proxy voting dashboard.
On our part as a responsible investor, transparency through corporate disclosures provides a foundation of material facts for us to track companies, assess them and influence them in the right direction. A guest contribution that we are honoured to publish here, by Tim Steinweg of PRI, illustrates this: making the case for why insight into corporate lobbying can help investors better manage financial risks resulting from deforestation. Taking a broader view, we also assess the pan-European regulatory landscape impacting sustainable investment.
Finally, and most importantly, we continue our drive to help clients invest sustainably. There was a good amount of positive feedback during the quarter, as we won awards by Morningstar for our work in Denmark and Finland, while in Sweden we were similarly recognised by Soderberg & Partners. We are honoured by the recognition, which boosts our spirits as we move on into the second quarter.
