Sustainability is more than just marketing
There is no clear or correct definition
Sustainability is on everyone’s lips. But for it to serve more than just a marketing purpose, a coherent approach is needed. The problem is that there is no universally accepted or “correct” definition of sustainability. Often, fragmented and poorly integrated approaches are pursued, focusing on individual sustainability aspects without forming a comprehensive and coherent strategy.
This leads to the issue of “greenwashing” — where certain products or activities are presented as environmentally friendly, while in reality they deceive the consumer or investor and offer little true sustainability value.
We Take Responsibility
Your Sustainability Preferences in Individual Mandates
Our individual wealth management mandates are fundamentally tailored to the needs of each client. Therefore, unless explicitly requested by the client, we do not actively apply sustainability criteria beyond our core values. However, we are happy to incorporate your personal sustainability preferences into your discretionary portfolio. Through the integration of sustainability criteria in our MainSky Macro Allocation Fund, we have built extensive expertise in the field, which we are glad to apply to your mandate upon request.
It’s not hard to take the first step towards sustainability
With the Article 8 fund MainSky Macro Allocation Fund
Mandatory Disclosures under the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR)
In accordance with legal requirements (Art. 3 et seq. SFDR), we are obliged to provide the following information:
As a company, we aim to contribute to a more sustainable, resource-efficient economy with the goal of reducing the risks and impacts of climate change in particular. In addition to observing sustainability goals within our own corporate organization, we also see it as our responsibility to raise our clients' awareness of sustainability aspects within the scope of our business relationships.
Environmental conditions, social disruptions, and/or poor corporate governance can have negative effects on the value of our clients' investments and assets in various ways. These so-called sustainability risks may directly impact the financial position, earnings, and reputation of the investment targets. As such risks can ultimately not be fully ruled out, we have developed specific strategies for the investment services we offer to identify and mitigate sustainability risks.
To limit sustainability risks, we aim to identify and ideally exclude investments in companies that present an elevated risk potential. With the help of specific exclusion criteria, we are able to align investment decisions or recommendations with environmental, social, or governance-related values. For this purpose, we generally rely on widely accepted evaluation methods and ESG data provided by ISS ESG.
The identification of suitable investments may involve investing in or recommending investment funds/ETFs whose investment policy is already equipped with an appropriate and recognized sustainability filter to reduce sustainability risks. It may also involve relying on recognized rating agencies for product selection in portfolio management or for recommendations in investment advisory services. Specific details are set out in the individual agreements.
According to Article 7 (2) in conjunction with Article 4 (1)(b) of the Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), we are required to provide the following information:
Investment decisions can have adverse impacts on so-called sustainability factors (environmental, social, and employee matters, respect for human rights, anti-corruption, and anti-bribery).
We fundamentally have a strong interest in fulfilling our responsibilities as a securities institution and contributing to the avoidance of such adverse impacts in the context of our investment decisions and recommendations. However, implementing the corresponding legal requirements is currently unreasonable due to the existing and foreseeable bureaucratic conditions. Furthermore, key legal questions remain unresolved.
To avoid legal disadvantages, we are therefore currently prevented from making a public statement indicating whether and how we consider adverse impacts on sustainability factors in our investment decisions or recommendations. As a result, we are obliged to declare that, for the time being and until further clarification, we do not take these into account (Article 4 (1)(b) of the SFDR).
However, we explicitly state that this approach does not affect our willingness to contribute to more sustainable, resource-efficient economic activity, with the aim of reducing the risks and impacts of climate change and other ecological or social issues.
The strategies of our company for the inclusion of sustainability risks are also incorporated into our internal organizational policies. Compliance with these policies is a key factor in evaluating the performance of our employees and therefore affects their remuneration and future salary development. In this respect, our remuneration policy is aligned with our strategies for integrating sustainability risks.
Provided that we succeed in identifying companies with elevated risk potential and excluding them from investment, the remaining residual sustainability risks should only have a minor negative impact on returns and should not significantly differ from general market risk. Sustainability risks that are not identifiable to us through the identification process described above may, however, have a significantly greater impact on returns.