“Active ownership” is a central element: of the active exercise of voting rights through to dialog in all investment classes. The Vita Collective Foundation places great importance on good corporate governance. It champions the highest integrity and transparency standards, whether that concerns corporate relationships or your investments in companies.
We effectively exercise shareholder voting rights in Switzerland and abroad. Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) supports us in this process. Through our direct connection with ISS’ Engagement Pool we enter into a direct dialog with the companies. We ensure effective exercise of shareholder voting rights in market listed public companies in Switzerland and abroad through the Zurich investment foundation.
We ensure that fund managers apply the ESG criteria in the investment process. All fund managers are signatories to the UN-PRI (UN Principles for Responsible Investment) and 100 percent of the share managers are actively engaged.
We have pledged ourselves to the United Nations’ Principles of Responsible Investment. We are likewise committed to collaborative promotion of sustainable development and are involved in various partnerships dedicated to the development of responsible investment. Memberships of Swiss Sustainable Finance and Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance promote the exchange of experience with likeminded asset owners in the area of sustainable decarbonization of the economy. With our accession to the Climate Action 100+ initiative we have underlined our active climate engagement.
We make impact-oriented investments in the environment, society and infrastructure. By investing in green bonds, we support projects that have a positive effect on sustainable development. Among other things, "impact investing" includes the commitment "senior housing". With "senior housing", we are promoting sustainable investment projects and, together with local partners, are committed to the development and design of future living spaces. We think beyond retirement and implement apartments for senior citizens that are suitable for the elderly.
We aim to achieve a balanced mix of complementary measures and approaches for the purpose of sustainable decarbonization. This includes the continuous and sustainable reduction of CO2 emissions, whether in our domestic and foreign real estate and equity investments, or on our own business premises. We have set ourselves clear sustainability targets, which we regularly reassess.
In the Swiss real estate category we have been able to reduce CO2 emissions by more than 20 percent since 2010 and have surpassed the targets we set for ourselves. Continuous monitoring of the portfolio is a significant control element. Using specific software we are able to calculate the CO2 footprint of our entire real estate portfolio. Energy consumption has also been successfully reduced: in the period from 2010 to 2017 by around 18 percent.
The investment group Immobilien Europa Direkt (IED) is looked after by the portfolio manager Schroder Real Estate. Schroder Real Estate has been a participant in Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) since 2011, the dominant global standard for evaluating the environmental, social and governance-related performance (ESG) of real estate funds and companies. In 2021 the fund achieved 87 points out of 100, resulting in a 5 star rating (from a total of 5 possible stars) and a green star rating. In September 2019 Schroder joined the Better Buildings Partnership (BBP), signing the self pledge on climate change and published the “Pathway to Net Zero Carbon” in December 2020. This contains – in accordance with the Paris Agreement – the pledge to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050 or sooner in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
With shares we have set ourselves the target of reducing CO2 emissions by 20 percent from their 2019 level, by 2025.