From illegal farming on Indigenous land in Brazil to the forced displacement of Indigenous groups in Peru due to logging, recent headlines have continuously highlighted corporate neglect of Indigenous rights and knowledge. This is part of a troubling pattern: companies acting without meaningful consultation […]
Opinion
The Netherlands would be better off not bearing the clothing and social costs of Shein
De Nieuwe Beurskoers (DNBK) and the Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO) are calling on the Dutch financial sector to ignore the listing of SHEIN. Shein is currently on a roadshow through Europe. The Chinese online budget giant for […]
Plastic Nightmare
I walk past the same shop again, where every day, the candy packages are neatly sorted by colour. The display case shows me an explosion of colours and single-use packaging. As a child, I was, just like its current visitors, […]
Biodiversity Credits: Last Step to Nature Restoration or False Solution?
Biodiversity conservation is essential, but the question of how companies should manage their impact on nature remains a contention. One of the options discussed is the purchase and sale of certificates, so-called biodiversity credits, similar to the voluntary carbon credits […]
Dependence on nature for the future of business too often underestimated
What are (listed) companies doing to reduce their negative impact on biodiversity and increase their future-proofness? And what are the good practices to learn from? Investors are already working on it, large organizations need incentives to get started, and the […]
Investors can and should take tougher action against child labour
It seems like we all take child labour for granted. At least, you could almost draw that conclusion. Meanwhile, we have been “celebrating” the International Day Against Child Labour for over twenty years. It is a day when we reflect […]
How should our pension funds invest? Preferably without blinders and with sound financial sense.
With the recently adopted Aartsen motion, the House of Representatives is sending a strong signal to the pension sector that it is not up to them to take a political stand by investing in an activist or idealistic manner, but […]
Allow my generation a pension to live for
I belong to Generation Z and won’t retire for another 40 years. Still, I am seriously concerned. On Tuesday, June 4, a motion by the VVD, BBB and SGP against “activist or idealistic” investing was adopted. The motion requests the […]
Unilever’s gone wrong packaging
Unilever has long stood as a giant in the consumer goods industry. However, I strongly question whether this giant is taking the right steps. To my astonishment, last week in the FD, I read about their weakened goals regarding plastic […]
Our thinking on investment returns has changed
As part of the publication of the asset manager APG’s annual report, APG interviewed Angélique Laskewitz, director of VBDO. In the interview, she explains, among other things, which steps pension funds can take in the coming years to become more […]
Balancing between feasibility, reliability and sustainability
We spoke with Guido Evertz, Sustainability Manager, and Pavan Gandhi, ESG Advisor for Investments, from Unigarant NV. (Unigarant NV also acts on behalf of the insurance company UVM Verzekeringsmaatschappij NV; hereafter, the two companies are jointly referred to as ‘Unigarant’). […]
Best practices to engage meaningfully with biodiversity
Large companies and investors need to get the huge loss of biodiversity on their radar and implement measures to help nature recover. Such is the aim of PwC and the Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO), which are now […]