Biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history, and the pressures driving this decline are still increasing. Over half of the global economy is dependent on well-functioning ecosystems. Further loss of biodiversity could pose risks to financial markets. Nature conservation and restoration is therefore in the direct long-term interest of Robeco's clients and our investments.
The financial sector and the asset management industry in which we sit has a crucial role to play in helping to prevent further biodiversity loss. This is not something that is simply ‘nice to have' in the context of sustainable investing: it is in the long-term interest of our clients and our investment performance, along with our duty to do our best to use our financial muscle to contribute to protect the planet. For that reason we have set three strategic priorities for our Sustainable Investment strategy: Climate Change, Biodiversity and Human Rights.
Biodiversity is a relatively new theme for investors, many of whom are unsure how it fits into investment planning, or how they can work to support it. That's why Robeco is proud to explain how protecting biodiversity is integrated into the investment process.
Robeco's internal biodiversity roadmap, captured in this new white paper, aims to address nature-related impacts and dependencies across its investments.
In this positioning paper we describe our journey - why we started it, what we have been doing, and where we aim to be. We hope you will enjoy reading it, and then join us on this vital mission.
We recognize that the financial sector has a crucial role in preserving natural capital and biodiversity. Robeco engages with companies on commodity-related deforestation and addresses biodiversity as a material factor in ESG integration. We are partnering with academics and peers to develop the methods and data so that we can measure and steer on biodiversity impacts throughout our investment portfolios.
The biodiversity issue is so huge that no single investor can tackle it on their own. Robeco is therefore proud to announce the launch of a new partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature Netherlands (WWF-NL).
This long-term partnership aims to build knowledge on how to integrate biodiversity into financial decision making, co-develop biodiversity investment strategies and share good practice to inspire clients and other stakeholders in the financial sector to act.
Access the white paper titled Robeco's approach to biodiversity and find out more about our new partnership with WWF-NL here.
This post was funded by Robeco
