Biodiversity is a collective term for the entire variation that exists among species and habitats on Earth. Biodiversity is crucial for nature’s fundamental functions and is also important for us as people since our production of food, food products and other life necessities is dependent on it. Rapid biodiversity loss is therefore one of the greatest threats to our common future.
But in contrast to the climate issue, there are still no established guidelines or regulations for measuring and monitoring how various activities impact biodiversity. The pension company Ilmarinen has now stepped into this void by publishing a roadmap for how it is already planning to integrate biodiversity in its investment processes.
“We did not wait for someone to develop a ready method for taking biodiversity into account. Instead, we created an approach ourselves based on information and approaches currently available. We also want to openly publish our approach so that we can discuss with other market participants and collaborate so that the investment industry develops better ways to take biodiversity into account, says Karoliina Lindroos, Head of Responsible Investment at Ilmarinen.
SEB was providing portfolio analysis and contributed with comments in the creation of Ilmarinen’s roadmap, which was published in early October.
“Many investors are not quite sure how to approach biodiversity, so Ilmarinen is at the vanguard with this roadmap and has attracted quite a bit of attention from media in the financial sector,” says Anne Kristin Kästner, sustainability expert at SEB.
Anssi Kiviniemi, Head of Sustainability for SEB in Finland believes that the work with the roadmap for biodiversity deepens the customer relationship with Ilmarinen another step.
“This makes us more relevant for our customers,” he says. “Which is the foundation for an advisory-driven relationship bank like us”, he says.
Ilmarinen’s roadmap
Biodiversity loss affects investment portfolios - Ilmarinen