Chief Investment Officer
• Insight
Stewardship Report 2025: Unwavering commitment to drive change
There remain challenges for sustainable investing, but we retain our unwavering commitment to drive change, as investors continue to adopt a more pragmatic approach. That’s the key message that Robeco again has for investors as we publish our annual Stewardship Report highlighting our sustainability and active ownership activities in 2025.
Authors
Summary
- Stewardship Report highlights five focus areas from climate to exclusions
- Ten case studies on engagement and another 16 on voting on corporate issues
- Commitment to sustainability remains undimmed despite ESG backlash
The comprehensive report details how we continue to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into our entire range of investment strategies, despite an ongoing backlash against ESG investing, and as climate commitments by governments continue to be downsized.
We highlight our five main focus areas on climate, nature, social, governance, and controversies and exclusions, and provide a full summary of Robeco’s voting and engagement activities in 2025, along with a summary of expectations for 2026. There are 10 case studies discussing how engagement with companies works in practice, and 16 on how we voted for or against companies on specific sustainability issues.
“Sustainable investing faced some significant headwinds in 2025,” says Robeco’s Chief Investment Officer, Anton Eser, in the introduction to the report. “We saw increasing regional divergence, slowdown in climate momentum, and continued uncertainty about regulation. In this challenging environment, Robeco is staying the course, as we firmly believe that doing so is in the best long-term interest of our clients.”
“We have critically assessed our engagement program, engagement outlook, as well as our voting approach, to make sure that we are utilizing our resources efficiently and effectively. Practically, this has resulted in closing some engagement cases where the prospects for progress had genuinely diminished. In terms of our stewardship beliefs and approach, these have not changed. We remain unwavering in our commitment to SI and stewardship.”
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Why stewardship matters
As a pioneer of sustainable investing, Robeco still strongly believes that our voting and engagement efforts with investee companies on financially material sustainability issues have a positive impact on our investment results, and on society. This is central to a core belief that active ownership – using our position as a shareholder or bondholder to bring positive change – is essential if you want to call yourself a true sustainable investor.
“Our approach is deliberately relational and based on building a relationship with the company under engagement,” Eser says. “We speak to different agents in the company: investor relations, but also topic owners, board members and operations. This way we can catalyze change by supporting the sustainability champions in the companies in making their case for change.”
Robeco’s Active Ownership team celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2025, a milestone that reflects both continuity and evolution. In 2025, the team worked closely with academia to deepen its understanding of what drives successful engagement outcomes and to make sure stewardship remains a driving force.
Our commitment remains undimmed
“Robeco’s steadfast commitment to climate action amid rising geopolitical challenges and regulatory pushback remains undimmed,” Eser says. “In 2025, Robeco has reaffirmed its commitment through its updated Climate and Nature Transition Plan, leveraging forward-looking analytics to distinguish leaders from laggards and drive credible transitions toward net-zero emissions and nature restoration through our stewardship activities.”
“Over the past two decades, active ownership and sustainable investing have evolved from niche practices into core components of the global investment landscape, with Robeco at the forefront since 2005, despite varying regional approaches and recent ESG pushback.”
“Growing investor and public awareness underscores the long-term value of integrating sustainability beyond short-term profit, with active ownership serving as a key tool for fulfilling fiduciary duties, influencing corporate behavior, and generating both shareholder value and real-world impact.”
