Franz Essl is an ecologist and a recognised expert on biodiversity and the protection of species diversity. In addition, he was named Scientist of the Year 2022 by the Club of Education and Science Journalists last year. In this interview, he explains what the term biodiversity encompasses and why politics and business must finally act to stop the loss of biodiversity.
The biodiversity of our planet provides the basis for life and the economy. The crisis facing global biodiversity puts quality of life and health at risk, as well as prosperity and economic development. Companies can also act and take measures. After all, biodiversity is on everyone’s agenda.
The regulatory environment for biodiversity-related risks is constantly changing. Investments in companies that are well prepared will benefit from this trend. Such companies prove to be robust in dealing with new regulations. Biodiversity risks need to be carefully analysed to protect not only investors’ assets but also Mother Earth.
Statistics show that the water temperature of the oceans this year is significantly above the long-term average. This is accompanied by serious consequences for many ecosystems and once again shows the drastic consequences of the climate crisis.
ERSTE BOND EM CORPORATE becomes part of our sustainable Integration fund family. Péter Varga discusses what this sustainable change means for him as a fund manager and what it changes in his investment process.
The taxonomy alignment of a fund is comparable to the nutritional information of food. Investors can thus find out transparently to what extent a fund invests in “green activities”. Find out more about taxonomy alignment and how we manage it in our funds in the blog post by Analyst Hebing Dong.
By submitting shareholder proposals at annual general meetings and exercising voting rights, investors can lobby companies to take measures in the direction of social responsibility, environmental protection or better transparency. In the previous year, Erste AM exercised its voting rights at 495 companies. In the blog post, we show what this entails using three examples.
With our self-developed “ESGenius” App, we can track and document our ESG activities such as engagements. Two current examples show how the app helps us improve our ESG performance.
Since 2018, Erste Asset Management calculates the carbon footprint of the entire fund range. Find out how we go about the calculation and how our funds compare to the overall market in the blog post.
On World Water Day today, we are publishing the water footprint of our sustainable funds for the seventh time. Problems such as water shortages and the decline in groundwater levels have now also reached Europe. This makes it all the more important for companies to use our water resources responsibly and manage water risks sustainably.
