Commitment

N4G Investor Pledge

Private sector - non-food business / Netherlands

ATNI Investor Signatory Group

Commitment made: 26 Nov 2021
Related event: 2021 Tokyo N4G Summit
Targeted location (aggregate)

Global - ATNI currently recruits investors globally. | The companies targetes and the participating organizations have a global reach/scope

Verification status Verified Find out more

Commitment description

As institutional investors, we acknowledge the global nutrition crisis. Poor diets provide inadequate nutrition and drive high levels of death and preventable non-communicable diseases, while also putting individuals at greater risk of contracting and dying from communicable diseases such as COVID-19. The high individual, societal and economic costs of poor diets and nutrition impact on our holdings, portfolios and asset values in the short, medium and long term, both in the food and beverage sector and more widely.

As responsible investors, and consistent with our fiduciary duty to our beneficiaries, we recognize the mutual benefit to investors, businesses and society of taking action on nutrition. The world is taking action on nutrition, but much more needs to be done by governments globally to meet the WHO targets set at the 65th World Health Assembly in 2012.

We therefore urge policy makers to support a global shift to healthy packaged food, using fiscal and regulatory measures where necessary, and strengthening commitments to achieving national and global WHO targets.

We also call on all food and beverage companies to commit to the following 3 key actions:

1. Report annually on the percentage of their sales generated by healthy products, and the percentage of their product portfolio that comprises healthy products.

2. Use the Health Star Rating (or equivalent independently developed and governed system such as NutriScore) nutritional profiling model to define healthy products.

3. Use the Investor Expectations framework to deliver better outcomes on nutrition, adopting the commitments within each of the four pillars of governance, strategy, lobbying and transparency.

Understanding the growing impacts of malnutrition, we recognize the need to scrutinize how well food and beverage companies manage the related risks and opportunities and we recognize our role in accelerating private sector action in this area.

We commit to use the framework of the Investor Expectations on Nutrition, Diets and Health, where applicable and as appropriate to our style of responsible investment, in our research and engagement with boards and management. We will tailor the application of the Expectations to each company's business model, exposure to emerging trends and its impacts.

We, as a group, commit to engage directly with all 20 listed food and beverage companies in the ATNI Global Index 2021 as appropriate, and/or to require the fund managers who invest on our behalf to do so, using these Investor Expectations.

We will disclose certain information about our engagement within, for example, our standard quarterly or annual stewardship or engagement reports or on our websites, and through reports that the Access to Nutrition Initiative will publish on signatory engagement.

We will use the insights we generate from our engagement to inform our investment research and, potentially, our investment decisions.

The aim of our engagement will be to ensure that food and beverage companies minimize their business risks and impacts associated with global nutrition challenges and capitalize on the related opportunities to enhance investor returns and societal outcomes. Principally, this will be by improving the nutritional quality of their products and encouraging their customers to choose healthy products through appropriate labelling, pricing, distribution, promotion and advertising. We will ask them to adopt consistent, high international standards in all markets and to adhere to stricter national standards where these exist.

By pledging to use these Expectations, we aim to demonstrate our commitment to addressing global nutrition challenges and supporting the realization of World Health Organization nutrition targets and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

As of November 26, 2021, the following institutional investors, representing $ 12.4 trillion in assets under management, are Signatories to this pledge:

1. Achmea Investment Management

2. ACTIAM

3. Adrian Dominical Sisters

4. Aikya Investment Management

5. AMP Capital

6. Apostole Funds Management

7. Aviva Investors

8. AXA Investment Managers

9. BancoPosta Fondi Sgr

10. BMO Global Asset Management

11. BNP Paribas Asset Management

12. Boston Common Asset Management

13. Boston Trust Walden

14. CANDRIAM

15. CCLA

16. Christian Super

17. COMETA Pension Fund

18. CommonSpirit Health

19. Daughters of Charity, Province of St. Louise

20. Domini Impact Investments

21. EdenTree Investment Management Ltd

22. EQ Investors

23. Ethical Partners Fund Management

24. Ethos Foundation

25. Federated Hermes

26. Fondo Pensione Gruppo Unicredit

27. Fukoku Capital Management, Inc.

28. Guy's & St Thomas's Foundation

29. Impax Asset Management LLC

30. JLens Investor Network

31. KLP

32. Legal and General Investment Management

33. Liontrust Plc

34. The Local Authority Pension Fund Forum

35. Mercy Investments

36. Mirova

37. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking

38. NEI Investments

39. NN Investment Partners

40. Nomura Asset Management

41. Pictet Group

42. PIMCO

43. PosteVita

44. Rathbone Greenbank Investments

45. Resona Asset Management Co., Ltd.

46. Seventh Generation Interfaith, Inc.

47. Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia

48. Socially Responsible Investment Coalition

49. Storebrand Asset Management

50. Trinity Health

51. Trillium Asset Management

52. UBS Asset Management

53. Vancity Investment Management

Global Nutrition Targets

Adult obesity
Under-5 overweight
Exclusive breastfeeding
Salt/sodium intake

Nutrition Action Classification across all goals

Enabling

  • Financial
  • Operational
  • Leadership and governance
  • Research monitoring and data

Policy

  • Food environment
  • Food supply chain
  • Consumer knowledge
  • Nutrition care services

Impact

  • Undernutrition
  • Diet
  • Obesity and diet-related NCDs
  • Food and nutrition security

N4G themes covered by goals

  • Food
  • Health
  • Resilience
  • Data
  • Financing

Total funding and costs across all goals

Funders Costs are part of regular organizations costs to the participating organizations
Funding mechanism Private, part of the regular organizations costs of participating organizations
Cost secured Fully secured
Total costs estimated Yes, and the amount disclosed to GNR only

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