What will we do to reduce the carbon footprint of our portfolio?

Our billion-krone investments are helping to drive the world in a greener direction. They play a part in the comprehensive green transition taking place globally, which is required in order to achieve the goal of net zero by 2050.

AP Pension has adopted a new multi-pronged climate strategy. The climate strategy sets carbon and increases AP Pension’s current green investment targets. Strengthened efforts on climate-related active ownership are also being initiated.

You can find more about the steps we are taking to achieve our climate goals in the menu items below.

Shares and corporate bonds

What are we doing?

We vote at the general meetings of companies in our portfolio from a sustainable standpoint to influence the most polluting companies in a sustainable direction. This is done either directly or through our partner, EOS, which specializes in, among other things, voting.
When we vote for or against a general meeting proposal in the climate area, we use in-depth analyses and recommendations from EOS as the basis for our vote.
We engage in dialogue with our asset managers to develop and strengthen their work on responsibility.
We engage in dialogue with selected companies in the portfolio to influence them to prevent negative impacts on the climate. This is primarily done through external consultants, asset managers, and investor collaborations, as AP Pension can thus speak with greater weight.
We focus our climate efforts on the companies with the largest CO2 footprint in our portfolio and where we see the greatest potential for improvement compared to the average in the respective industry. This is done through dialogue and active ownership. The work focuses on how companies will reduce their CO2 footprint and how they credibly contribute to the green transition.
Exclusion of companies is also part of our active ownership strategy in the climate area as a last resort. See the exclusion criteria here.

You can read more about our active ownership strategy here.

Property in use

We want to:

Adapt the relevant part of our portfolio to the taxonomy
Continue working with environmental certifications such as the Nordic Swan Ecolabel and DGNB
Measure and work according to our Net Zero strategy for the existing portfolio
Implement energy optimizations where economically viable
Work on optimizing the operation of our properties to reduce our energy consumption (by obtaining improved data from the portfolio’s actual consumption)
Work on climate risk assessments and forecasts for physical risks (flooding, heatwaves, etc.)
Implement requirements for our partners to ensure compliance with labor and human rights in our value chain
Develop a strategy for social sustainability at the portfolio level and evaluate selected housing projects

Development projects

We want to:

Work with a focus on CO2 reduction, both through design optimizations, material selection, stricter CO2 requirements, and a focus on transformation
Measure and work according to our Net Zero strategy for our development projects
Adapt all newly constructed buildings to the taxonomy
Continue working with environmental certifications such as the Nordic Swan Ecolabel and DGNB
Develop a framework to work on and measure on-site and off-site biodiversity
Implement requirements for our partners to ensure compliance with labor and human rights in our value chain
Develop and implement a strategic approach to social sustainability

Active ownership in relation to climate

Our strategy for climate-related active ownership means that we engage in dialog with those companies with above-average emissions in the relevant industry and where we cannot see a credible plan for their transition and reduction of carbon in the company. This dialog can be given added weight when carried out together with other investors.

AP Pension’s strategy for active ownership ensures that at least 70 percent of the financed carbon emissions are in line with the Paris Agreement or are subject to direct or collective active ownership.

We prioritize companies where we exercise climate-related active ownership.

The Climate Action 100+ Net Zero Company Benchmark is used as the primary tool to identify areas where companies need to improve and where we focus our more intense active ownership.

We use several channels for dialog with the companies:

direct dialog
participation in collective engagement through Climate Action 100+ and other initiatives
dialog with external managers
participation in working groups
more rigorous voting at general meetings
preparation of new shareholder proposals