Robeco reflects on the next ten years of action as UN celebrates 5th anniversary of SDGs

As part of the wider 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the UN SDGs are a call for action embedded in a set of 17 goals and a further 169 targets for government, business and society to collaborate on reducing inequality, eradicating poverty and protecting the environment.

Carola van Lamoen, Head of Active Ownership, at Robeco said, “Global Goals Week 2020 is particularly important: now that the SDGs celebrate their fifth anniversary, a “Decade of Action” has kicked off to ensure these goals are achieved in the next ten years. And Covid-19 is a vivid reminder that all of us, including investors, need to do more to accelerate the pace for the SDGs.”

“The SDGs provide a North Star for moving beyond the current crisis in a way that makes our societies more sustainable and resilient. Although achieving the SDGs remains challenging, it is a clear call to action for the private sector and one which investors can make a huge difference.”

“Investors can direct capital to companies that provide solutions to sustainability challenges. And by investing in companies, they become owners, which gives the ability to improve companies’ impacts on the SDGs through active engagement. For such actions to lead to large-scale impacts, the SDGs must enter the mainstream of the investment space.”

Robeco and RobecoSAM offer a range of SDG strategies in both equities and fixed income, including RobecoSAM Global SDG Equities, RobecoSAM Euro SDG Credits, and RobecoSAM SDG Credit Income. In May 2018, Robeco and RobecoSAM announced the launch of RobecoSAM Global SDG Credits. This strategy, which uses RobecoSAM’s developed and proprietary SDG framework and builds on Robeco’s successful credit capability with its flagship global credit fund, has the twin aims of supporting the SDGs and outperforming the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Corporate Index.