Keva has systematically stepped up its engagement with companies to increase environmental reporting. We are now taking part for the fourth time in the international CDP’s annual Non-Disclosure Campaign, which offers investors the opportunity to engage with companies that have not responded to the CDP disclosure request. This year already 168 investors with assets of USD 17 trillion are involved the campaign.
The objective of the campaign is to get companies to report their environmental impacts to CDP and thereby, on the one hand, promote the companies’ own understanding of the risks and opportunities of their business and, on the other hand, promote investors’ understanding of the companies.
The campaign has grown greatly in popularity in the investor community. This year’s campaign has involved over 50% more investors and 25% more companies (a total of 1,321) than in 2020.
Keva has chosen to target companies whose business is considered as being most tied to the climate, forests or use of water resources. The selection criteria also included an examination of violations involving water or land use or biodiversity.
This year, Keva has been involved in 270 requests for disclosure addressed to 238 companies: of these, 125 requests concerned the climate, 17 forest resources and 128 concerned water resources.
Keva’s engagement has gradually expanded from its own investment portfolio and the biggest climate polluters also to other than our investees and also targets forest and water resources.
”Engagement at Keva has already for years been targeted not just at the climate but also the sustainable use of forest and water resources. These days, public debate tends to focus on climate even though all three are interconnected and relate to sustainable use of the natural capital,” says Kirsi Keskitalo, Head of Responsible Investment at Keva.
As a long-term investor, Keva utilises many sources of information when assessing investment risks and opportunities.
“From the risk management perspective, the key thing is to integrate ESG information into the investment process and decisions. This is why as accurate and reliable information as possible is needed if it to be usable in the investment process. This is where CDP plays a vital role, since the service providers used by investors also use CDP’s databases in their own analyses,” Keskitalo explains.
Active ownership and dialogue enable engagement with investee companies. Keskitalo says that Keva seeks to promote investee reporting by direct and indirect engagement with them.
”According to CDP, companies are more than twice as likely to report their environmental information when investors actively request it. This indicates how effective engagement is,” Keskitalo says.
For further information, please contact:
Kirsi Keskitalo, Head of Responsible Investment, tel. +358 20 614 2082, kirsi.keskitalo@keva.fi
What is CDP’s Non-Disclosure Campaign?
CDP is an international non-profit organisation that drives corporate transparency around climate change, deforestation and use of water. In the annual Non-Disclosure Campaign, companies are requested to respond to a disclosure request which requires them to measure and assess their environmental impacts. Once they have done this, it is much easier for the companies to set goals and implement them systematically to mitigate environmental impacts in their own operations.
Reporting on environmental impacts promotes both companies’ own understanding of the risks and opportunities of their business and investors’ understanding of the companies. Keva has been a CDP member since 2006 and utilises CDP data when evaluating the responsibility of investee companies.