Social responsibility targets have become significantly more common among asset managers of Elo’s fund investments
/ Article
Asset managers responsible for Elo’s fund investments have increasingly focused on social responsibility issues in recent years. According to the latest annual questionnaire, the number of managers setting social responsibility targets has more than doubled over the past two years.
Just under half of Elo’s investment assets are invested through funds. In these investments, sustainability is assessed both at the asset manager and fund level, and developments are followed through ongoing dialogue and reporting, among other means. A similar sustainability survey has been done for asset management companies since 2022, and this year’s response rate was again exceptionally high at 97 per cent.
− We receive valuable and comparable information from the responses on how our asset managers promote sustainability. At the same time, we can follow how our fund investments align with our responsibility principles,” says Anna Varpula, Director of Responsible Investment.
Significant increase in the target setting of social factors
There has been clear progress in the area of social responsibility in recent years. The share of asset management companies with a human rights policy increased from just over 60 per cent to nearly 70 per cent over a three-year period among questionnaire respondents. The target setting of social factors became significantly more common: while in 2023 two out of five responding asset managers had set such targets, by 2025 nearly half had defined them.
This development indicates a shift from policies to measurable actions, which also improves investors’ ability to follow how sustainability is implemented in practice.
Nearly 80% of respondents have a climate policy
Climate work among the asset management companies responding to the questionnaire has strengthened steadily. The vast majority have climate policies in place, and their share increased slightly compared to the previous year. Monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions has also become well established: around three quarters of companies already track the emissions of their investees. Just over 10 per cent of respondents had set science-based climate targets (SBTs).
Work related to nature is overall at a similar stage as climate work was a few years ago: awareness is increasing and policies are being developed, but clear targets and systematic measuring are still evolving gradually. The share of asset management companies with a nature policy has remained at the same level (around 40 per cent of respondents), while concrete nature-related targets are still rare (13 per cent).
By contrast, the identification of nature-related dependencies and impacts has clearly become more common. This indicates that the asset managers responding to the questionnaire are increasingly actively assessing how the operations of their investees are linked to biodiversity.
Monitoring and development will continue
The asset manager questionnaire will continue to be a key tool for assessing responsibility at Elo. It enables the company to monitor changes and progress in important themes such as nature and social factors. Each year, the questionnaire also highlights topical sustainability themes.
The figures from the annual surveys are not fully comparable with one another.
By asset managers, we refer to the asset management companies responsible for Elo’s fund investments. We send these companies a sustainability questionnaire annually.