Responsible Investor

Going direct: Norway’s €326bn investor ESG data project

Government supported investor initiative goes direct for company SRI key performance indicators.

In August this year, a group of Norway’s largest institutional investors launched a collaborative project called Sustainable Value Creation. Its aim is to influence companies listed on the Norwegian stock exchange to develop responsibly and create long-term value for their owners. Together the investors in the group have NOK 2700 billion (€326bn) under management, of which NOK 1000 billion is invested in the Norwegian market. The calibre of the investors involved underlines the project’s intent. The group consists of Alfred Berg, DnB NOR, Folketrygdfondet, Gjensidige, KLP, Nordea, the Norwegian Ministry for Trade and Industry, Odin, Oslo Pensjonsforsikring, StatoilHydro Kapitalforvaltning, Storebrand and Vital. The project also received highly valuable support from the Norwegian government. At the launch of Sustainable Value Creation, Kristin Halvorsen, Minister of Finance, said: “Never before has such a broad group of investors collected and compared the companies’ performance within these areas. This makes the project unique and very exciting. What we are doing in Norway is noticed internationally. It is therefore

a pleasure to see that we can collaborate on developing these issues further. The project also has an international ambition and this is very promising.” So what are we doing? On August 12th, the investors sent all Norwegian companies listed on the Oslo Børs Benchmark Index a survey regarding their policies for sustainable value creation. It included questions on environmental, corruption, human and labour rights policies. Importantly, the survey was sent directly to the chief executive officer with a copy to the chairman of the board and the head of investor relations. The questions in the survey cover four main areas: overall policies and commitments, implementation and adherence, communication and reporting, and the board’s accountability. The results will be publicly available in a report to be issued in November 2008.
Why are we doing this? As Nils Bastiansen, director of equities at the €14bn Folketrygdfondet, the Norwegian national insurance scheme, and fund spokesperson for the steering committee of Sustainable Value Creation, puts it: “As owners in Norwegian companies, we, as

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