Responsible investment

At Varma, we invest the pension assets of Finns in companies that strive to make the world more sustainable. That also makes all of Varma’s customers and pension recipients responsible investors. When you take out earnings-related pension insurance with Varma, you ensure that your pension assets are always managed according to the most ambitious principles of responsible investment.

More information about responsible investment

New investments

We invest in sustainable companies.

We increasingly invest in companies that take climate change into account in their operations and develop solutions to mitigate it.

Our goal is for the climate allocation to make up 20% of our investment portfolio by 2025. This comprises investees whose business benefits from actions to mitigate climate change and whose operations do not cause significant emissions. Included are equity investments in companies with ambitious emission-reduction targets, our green bond investments and our properties with emission-free energy consumption.

Investments we avoid

We exclude or exit from investments that we do not consider to be sustainable.

There are some industries that we do not invest in at all. These include, but are not limited to, manufacturers of tobacco products and controversial weapons (nuclear arms, etc.) and companies that rely on coal or lignite in their operations. Besides coal producers, oil exploration and electricity producers with coal-based operations are also excluded.

We will exit from all thermal coal investments by 2025 and from oil exploration by 2030. Since 2015, we have already excluded from our direct investments companies with coal- or lignite-based operations accounting for more than 30% of their net sales, production capacity or production.

Engagement

We drive our investees towards more sustainable operations.

Varma has a socially significant role in determining the future direction of the companies it invests in. We influence the operations of our portfolio companies, and we encourage them to make more sustainable choices. We demand climate reporting from companies, and we require them to take sustainability into account in their strategic decision-making. We may also exit from an investment if our sustainability requirements are not met.

Joint engagement projects

Shareholder meetings and Varma's voting 2021

Shareholder meetings and Varma's voting 2020

Shareholder meetings and Varma's voting 2019

Real Estate

With the built environment accounting for roughly 40% of Finland’s emissions, achieving emission-free energy consumption in buildings matters. Varma is modifying the office premises and flats under its ownership to make them carbon neutral – the heating in some of our rental homes is already carbon neutral.

Reporting and additional information

Varma is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and has published a PRI responsible investment report:

PRI responsible investment report 2020

PRI responsible investment report 2019

PRI responsible investment report 2018

PRI responsible investment report 2017

PRI responsible investment report 2016

PRI responsible investment report 2015

PRI responsible investment report 2014

Responsible investment in asset classes

Sustainability at Varma

Annual and Sustainability Report

Varma is among the international leaders in responsible investment

In an international assessment, the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has included Varma for the second time in the PRI Leaders’ Group for its responsible investment work. The theme in 2020 was reporting on climate-related issues, and of the more than 2,000 member organisations, 36 investors made it into the Leaders’ Group.