Encouraging new practices

Our ongoing investment in ESG research, our team of experienced analysts, and our experience make us the preferred partner to help our clients implement their ESG commitments.

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Wim Van Hyfte
Global Head of ESG Investments and Research
Our job now is to help our clients with voting, commitment, data and reporting, with all the ESG issues that they face, where we have real expertise and where we can help them.

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Creating more opportunities

Our independent ESG research works in synergy with the management teams, adding value and innovation. It ensures access to more opportunities for our clients, as well as a better understanding of long-term risks.

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Innovation 

We continue to develop our expertise and enrich our processes and our savoir-faire in order to offer our clients investment solutions that have a real, inclusive and long-lasting impact, for the benefit of all.

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Sharing

Candriam donates part of its revenues to finance societal projects in the field of education, health, environment and social inclusion. We share our ESG expertise through the Candriam Academy, the world's first free online training platform on sustainable investment.

Figures are worth a thousand words. 

€101bn

AuM

2006

Founding PRI signatory

1996

First SRI strategy

23

ESG experts

A unique approach to responsible investment

Unique because it is built on our proprietary research, which has been developed and enriched over more than 20 years, and on the recognised expertise of our team of ESG analysts, one of the largest such teams in Europe, which informs all of our investments.

Unique because our starting premise is that every company contributes to sustainability in two ways: through its activities, and through the way it is managed. This dual dimension is present in all our sustainability funds through our analysis and the ESG rating we produce for all the companies in which we invest.

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Exclusions

We have chosen to exclude industries such as tobacco, thermal coal, and controversial weapons (anti-personnel mines, cluster munitions, chemical and biological weapons, including white phosphorous) from all our funds.

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Taking our responsibilities seriously

We believe that engagement with issuers and an active voting policy are essential to long-term value creation. Each year we attend 1,200 general meetings and vote on nearly 16,000 resolutions. We also lead or participate in some 50 collaborative initiatives to positively influence companies' sustainability strategies.

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Taking action

We are responsible in two ways: by investing directly in companies that provide solutions to the challenges we face, and by supporting, through the Candriam Institute for Sustainable Development, projects that work towards building a more sustainable society in the fields of health, education and ESG research, social inclusion and well-being, or the environment (circular economy, climate change and just transition).

Promoting dialogue as the key to success

We maintain an ongoing dialogue with the companies in which we invest, combining our ESG research with an engagement policy that places particular emphasis on fair working conditions, the energy transition, and business ethics.

Applying to ourselves what we ask of others

  • Being a long-term partner for our clients and stakeholders
  • Creating conditions for a rewarding and lasting professional life for our teams
  • Acting responsibly with regard to each and every employee
  • Applying rigorous governance and compliance processes
  • Publier un rapport annuel RSE décrivant nos actions en tant qu'entreprise responsable
  • Adopting an ambitious climate policy, aligned with the objectives of the Paris Agreement
FUNDS

Do you want to know more about our funds?

ESG is an integral part of all our investment decisions.

Leaving nothing to chance

Our exclusion policy is applied to all our investments. We are continuously developing our non-financial criteria in order to accurately assess the sources of growth as well as long-term risks, and how these contribute to or jeopardise our sustainability objectives.

1. Exclusion

We exclude companies that are involved in controversial activities (e.g. alcohol, gambling, tobacco, etc.) and we ensure that our selection of companies complies with the major international agreements.

2. ESG research

The team has developed its own ESG analysis methodology that is applied to three types of issuer: companies, governments, and supranational organisations. Company ESG analysts are specialised by ESG theme, in order to create expertise hubs to improve the development of strategies and provide the investment teams with a better understanding of the specific risks and opportunities associated with each of the three themes: E, S and G.

3. ESG rating

The ESG universe consists of the best-positioned companies based on ESG ratings resulting from the analysis of the company's activities and stakeholders and which have also passed the normative analysis and the control of exposure to controversial activities.

4. Valuation

In making recommendations, our analysts carry out an in-depth study of the company's business and financial profile by including ESG criteria when evaluating companies, using a comprehensive framework.

5. Long-term investor

We are an active investor in order to encourage transparency, promote sustainable practices, and support investment decisions. We maintain regular contact with companies via a direct dialogue, and we participate in or drive collaborative initiatives at the same time as exercising our voting rights.

Find out more

  • All our publications
  • Meet our experts
  • Candriam in the press

Latest analyses

  • ESG, Kroum Sourov, Sovereign Sustainability, Research Paper, Wim Van Hyfte

    Sustainability in the age of the grey swan

    Grey swan is an event that is possible and known, potentially extremely significant but considered not very likely to happen.
  • Circular Economy, David Czupryna, ESG, SRI, Research Paper

    Investing in the Circular Economy. We are all plastic now.

    Perhaps like us, you are a bit frightened about all the news stories and the statistics – the plastic ‘eighth continent’ in the Pacific Ocean, using our natural resources more rapidly than they can be replaced.
  • ESG, SRI

    Next Stop: Biodiversity

    Our planet’s biodiversity – the variety of species of animals and plants – is collapsing. Given that about half of the global GDP is highly dependent on nature, the consequences can be grave.
  • ESG, Research Paper, SRI, Vincent Compiègne

    Capital Goods companies: enablers of a low-carbon economy

    Dull, boring, capital goods? Not at all! These companies are the next new thing in our Climate fight. As developers and providers of a wide range of components and automation products, capital goods companies develop the often un-seen products to reduce energy use and other sources of Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHGs).
  • Climate Action, Equities, ESG, SRI, Paulo Salazar, Galina Besedina, David Czupryna

    ESG in EM Equities: Knitting it all together

    25 years of experience in ESG, 25 years of experience in Emerging Markets Equities, and over 15 years of putting it all together. Doubling the Drivers of Performance : Historically, Emerging Markets have been the drivers of global growth. Times are changing - deglobalisation is the new trend – but EMs still are responsible for more than half of our global economic growth.
  • ESG, SRI

    Investors can positively influence the climate crisis

    Every day we are reminded of the sweeping impact of climate change. As a responsible investor, we have a key role to play in financing the transition towards a low-carbon economy ….we have a role in financing a transition that takes place in a just and equal way … and we can help control climate change.
  • Sustainable bonds: focus on outcomes

    Sustainable bonds are increasingly used to fund specific environmental and social projects, and other sustainable activities. The growth of the sustainable bonds market has been underpinned by issuance from central and regional governments, supranational organisations and corporates.
  • ESG, SRI, Wim Van Hyfte

    Weapons manufacturing is not sustainable. No ifs or buts.

    For many years, and with the gradual rise of ESG investing, investors have been excluding the defence sector from their investments due to the adverse nature of armaments which have often served to infringe human rights and led to devastating effects on human lives and the overall  well-being of society.

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