The report includes five indicators per fund, each with their own sub-indicators that provide more context to the headline figure. The calculations follow the criteria set out in the official documentation available on the State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF) website.

The number one cause for any deviation from other sustainability reporting is linked to the specific Swiss Climate Scores methodology. The Swiss Federal Council has defined rules that govern the way in which asset managers should select and aggregate data. These methodological choices may not align with other regulatory initiatives such as SFDR. It is important to be aware of these nuances when reading the Swiss Climate Scores report for a given product.

Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions

We source the underlying emissions data from S&P Trucost. We apply several quality checks and transformations to ensure that we have sufficient coverage across our investment universe before adding to our data systems.

Most of emissions related reporting, for instance in our Sustainability Report or SFDR disclosures, is in Euros. Under Swiss Climate Scores, we calculate holding-level carbon footprints and intensities in Swiss Francs. These are then aggregated up using an approach consistent with norms used in other regulatory reports.

Many of our funds are focused on investing in companies that will facilitate a transition to a sustainable economy. Accordingly, they may have a higher-than-expected footprint or intensity once scope 3 is included in the calculation. We have a paper available here that explores this issue in more detail.

Exposure to Fossil Fuel Activities

Under Swiss Climates Scores, we must consider any holding with greater than five percent revenue from fossil fuels as being fully exposed. As a result, our exposure may seem higher than expected. Our preferred internal methodology is to use a so-called energy mix exposure. That is, we multiply the invested amount by the percentage of sales derived from fossil fuels.

At an entity level, our exposure to energy-related investments was 5.0% as of 31 December 2022. See p65 of our Sustainability Report 2022 for further information on the methodology.

Verified Commitments to Net-Zero

Under Swiss Climate Scores, we may only count targets verified by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Other regulations are less strict in their requirements for target setting. For instance, under the European Union’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) there is an optional Principal Adverse Impact indicator (PAI) that captures exposure to “investments in companies without carbon emission reduction initiatives” without the need for third-party verification.

Management to Net-Zero

Only investment strategies with a Climate Transition Benchmark (CTB) or Paris Aligned Benchmark (PAB) have goals of reducing the GHG emissions of their underlying investments.
All our portfolios are part of a third-party verified commitment to Net-Zero since Robeco is a member of Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAM).

Credible Climate Stewardship

We engage with companies on climate in one of two ways, either individually as Robeco or collectively as part of the Climate Action 100+ (CA100+) initiative. We aggregate data based on the issuer of the holding. This means that we might show engagement activities for both equity and fixed income strategie.

We calculate our climate voting record based on our account-level activity, since we may have voting policies for a mandate that differ from our fund range.
Further information can be found within our Stewardship Report 2022. This supplements the Stewardship Policy document referenced in the Swiss Climate Scores report.