AP4 publishes 2014/2015 Sustainability and Corporate Governance Report

Integrating sustainability into asset management is absolutely necessary for long-term management. For AP4, Sustainability and Corporate Governance is about taking responsibility and helping companies to become successful and generate a solid return in the long-term. This helps to safeguard pensions.

Today AP4 publishes its Sustainability and Corporate Governance Report for 2014/2015. The report summarizes the work with sustainability and corporate governance in AP4’s business and management. The reporting period is July 1, 2014 – June 30, 2015, which follows the season for Nomination Committees and AGMs.

- Sustainability is a way to reduce risk and ultimately increase returns for the portfolio manager with a long-term mandate. No company, or organization can have long-term success if sustainability is not high on their agenda, says Mats Andersson, CEO at AP4.

In addition to the ongoing work with sustainability, AP4 has two focus areas:
Climate Change and Corporate Governance.

Climate change is about how climate affects the earth, its nature and its inhabitants. According to AP4’s analysis, climate change is the imminent global threat to future performance and safe pension. That’s way AP4 for several years has worked with low carbon strategies for reducing climate risk in the equity investments. AP4 is also one of the founders of PDC, Portfolio Decarbonization Coalition, a coalition of asset managers worldwide that want to combat climate change by focusing on low-carbon investment.

Focus area Corporate Governance entails owners actively taking responsibility, influencing and contributing to creation of long-term sustainable values in companies. Good governance is a part of AP4’s investment strategy to improve return on investment.

- I Sweden, AP4 is one of the 10 largest institutional investors with an extensive tradition of taking responsibility both as a long-term owner and in developing good praxis on the equity market. During the period, AP4 participated in 21 nomination committees of Swedish listed companies with AGMs in 2015, of which as the chairperson for two of the committees, says Arne Lööw, Head of Corporate Governance at AP4.  

AP4’s Sustainability and Corporate Governance report can be downloaded here.
This report is one of three reports that together describe the work carried out by AP4. The two other reports are the AP4 Annual Report and the Ethical Council Annual Report.

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