SRI - Socially Responsible Investment
When investing our clients’ capital, we set ourselves a number of goals: Security of the invested capital sums is paramount. At the same time, we exercise utmost care to maximise yields while minimising risks. When choosing among comparable investments, we unfailingly opt for the one that is preferable from the point of view of sustainability. Hence, security, yield and sustainability are the three criteria any investment must meet before we take it into consideration on behalf of our clients.
UNPRI
By signing these principles for responsible investment APK Vorsorgekasse AG publicly commits to consider environmental, social, and corporate governance criteria (ESG criteria) in all business activities, where consistent with its fiduciary responsibilities. These six principles (www.unpri.org/pri) are mandatory and stipulate annually publishing a transparency report regarding activities and progress in implementing the principles.
APK SIGMA
APK Σ – the sustainable investment concept of APK Vorsorgekasse AG
Sustainability plays an essential role in the entire APK Vorsorgekasse AG portfolio.
We view sustainability in its economic, societal and ecological dimensions.
This underpins our sustainable investment policy, which is reflected in the following concept.
Certified sustainable funds
Sustainable investment is also reflected in the external certification of the assets under management. Especially with regard to monies invested in enterprises, we strive to safeguard as high a standard as possible. Among the funds incorporated into our investment portfolio, seven boast the Eco-label. Six of them are APK Vorsorgekasse AG special funds, the seventh is a vehicle used by several institutional investors.
The Austrian Eco-label was awarded by the Austrian Ministry of the Environment to these seven funds because ecological and social criteria are taken into consideration when selecting equities and bonds, not only economic ones.
The Eco-label is proof that these criteria, and their implementation, safeguard the selection of suitable equities or bonds. The award of the Eco-label does not in itself constitute an economic assessment and does not allow any conclusions as to the future value of a financial product.
The ÖGUT certificate - a seal of approval of sustainable investment
On an annual basis, the Austrian Association for Technology and Environment, ÖGUT for short, conducts a non-compulsory investigation of a random number of participants in the financial market with a focus on issues of sustainability.
In this, three fields are looked at in detail and then assessed as to the extent that ethical, ecological and social criteria have been taken into consideration: fundamental principles and methodology, portfolio, and the financial environment. Performance is rated as excellent, good, sufficient or insufficient. The resulting appraisal serves as a basis for decisions by the assessment panel regarding the award of ÖGUT Sustainability Certification.
The 2023 investigation established that APK Vorsorgekasse ‘meets standards in each of the three fields assessed to a very high degree’. In consequence, APK Vorsorgekasse was awarded a gold certificate.
rfu - sustainability consulting
rfu – Mag. Reinhard Friesenbichler Unternehmensberatung advises APK Vorsorgekasse AG with regard to a sustainable orientation of our portfolio. In this, the entire process, from strategic conceptualisation to the establishment of criteria and their embedding in the investment process, is analysed and optimised. The investment guidelines, drafted collaboratively, comprise general principles of sustainability, exclusion and inclusion criteria, sustainability categories and portfolio segments, integration into the investment process, and rating and controlling procedures.