You recently set a 10% target allocation for impact investments: can you elaborate for our readers on what your strategic intention is and what motivated this decision?

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Gregor Smeets, Director Group Balance Sheet Management @ Achmea: Achmea stands for Sustainable Living Together. We strive for a sustainable and inclusive society and as a global investor we can contribute to that goal through impact investments, for example in renewable energy or sustainable healthcare properties. We strongly believe that impact investing with a solid financial return is possible, and as such, we continuously seek impact investing opportunities that meet these criteria. The 10% target is a short-term objective, but our ambition does not end there. Our long-term objective is to realise as much real world impact as possible, whilst still meeting all of our other objectives.

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You just became a NAB member: what do you expect to get from and bring to the community?

 

Maureen Schlejen, CEO Achmea Investment Management: We are 100% convinced that collaboration, both with and among clients, will accelerate the growth of impact investing. In this rapidly evolving field knowledge sharing can unlock tremendous value. Contributing to common standards, or joint investing, can create scale and size that allows impact initiatives to launch and thrive. And of course, through collective active ownership we stand stronger in the boardroom. Drawing on our extensive experience as fiduciary manager and impact provider we proudly serve more than 20 Dutch pension funds to help them realise their impact ambitions.

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What can Achmea contribute to the impact investing ecosystem?

 

Maureen Schlejen: In addition to knowledge sharing, joint investments and collective active ownership, we also strongly believe in leading by example and making our vision heard amongst our pension fund clients and within the sector. Leadership is crucial and being vocal about our principles is important. This allows impact investing to become more mainstream and that is a goal we all share, right?!

 

Gregor Smeets: Achmea wants to be a frontrunner in the transition to a sustainable society. As an asset owner, we can be a lead investor in new impact investment solutions in order to get them started and inspire other investors to join.