Since the Industrial Revolution, we have gradually replaced the strength of the arm with the power of the machine. These machines have not only taken over our physical effort, but in many ways surpassed our abilities. In the last decades, it became clear that our technical progress would not remain without consequences: we recognize the growing imbalance between the consumption and renewal of resources, and the gap between the capabilities of our creations and our own ability to foresee the consequences of their use.

More recently, we are confronted with machines that match not only our mechanical strength, but our intellectual power as well. Artificial Intelligence is now capable of performing tasks once reserved for highly trained professionals – and much quicker.

These unprecedented capabilities bring as many opportunities as new risks. To better understand their impact and relevance to the financial sector, we launched a dedicated section on Artificial Intelligence on our website.  It offers insights into the role of AI in sustainable finance – from learning resources to concrete use cases – and highlights the considerations that come with Responsible AI deployment, ensuring that innovation goes hand in hand with long-term value creation.

We have other exciting updates in this newsletter: large pension funds reallocating capital based on sustainability policies, showing the unabated engagement of asset owners on sustainable investing, and many news on carbon markets – from the signature of an agreement between Switzerland and Denmark for the storage of CO2 to our recent and successful carbon markets event with McKinsey and SIX.

Enjoy reading

Swiss News

• On September 3, 2025, the Swiss Federal Council proposed to prepare an indirect counterproposal to a popular initiative for sustainable corporate governance, aiming to align Swiss companies with international standards while ensuring competitiveness. A draft will be finalized by March 2026.

International News

• Singapore regulators have postponed the ISSB reporting timeline. Initially, all listed companies were to disclose Scope 1 & 2 emissions and other ISSB climate data from 2025, with Scope 3 emissions from 2027. Now, only the 30 largest companies on the Straits Times Index (STI) will be required to start ISSB disclosures by the end of this financial year.
• The Investment Advisory Council for the Florida State Board of Administration (SBA) warned that if Florida and other states move ahead with their own proxy advisor oversight rules, the result could be a patchwork of regulation that undermines efficiency, consistency, and investor decision-making.

Market News

• 477 organizations, including investors and companies, urged EU policymakers to preserve key elements of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) in the Omnibus I simplification initiative. They emphasized the importance of sustainability reporting, climate transition plans, and due diligence for achieving the EU's sustainability, growth, and competitiveness goals.
• The Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) is holding a member vote on transitioning from a membership-based alliance to a new framework initiative, with results expected at the end of September 2025. Meanwhile, NZBA has paused activities and encourages banks to continue advancing their net-zero commitments.
• The IFC’s Blue Finance Guidelines 2.0 provide updated guidance for financial institutions to identify, structure, and scale investments that support sustainable ocean and water resource use. They aim to promote transparency, align with global standards, and accelerate growth in the blue economy.
• The Swiss Foundations Report 2025 provides key trends and data on philanthropy in Switzerland, with 52 members participating, representing a total of CHF 18.6 billion in assets. According to the report, 84% of participating foundations consider sustainability in their asset management through one or more sustainable investment approaches. For 38% of foundations, positive impact ist the primary motivation.
• The EDHEC Climate Institute has launched two open-access interactive tools (EXCITE and EDHEC-CLIRMAP) allowing users to explore how different emissions pathways could impact global temperatures and regional economic outcomes. These visualisations support research, policy, investment decisions, and climate education.
• EDHEC Business School has launched Scientific Climate Ratings (SCR), Europe’s first public rating system assessing the financial impact of climate risks, initially covering over 6,000 infrastructure assets. SCR combines climate science, geospatial data, and financial models to provide forward-looking ratings that inform investment, regulatory, and policy decisions.
•  China is moving ahead quickly on emissions caps and will begin imposing absolute caps in different sectors of the industry already from 2027, replacing its current intensity-based limits, and plans to roll out a full nationwide emissions trading scheme by 2030.
• On September 3, 2025, Switzerland signed two agreements with Denmark that will enable the export and permanent storage of Swiss CO2 in Denmark. They also serve as a basis for further cooperation in the field of negative emission technologies. Denmark is Switzerland's second partner country for CO2 storage after Norway.
• Dutch pension fund PFZW pulls EUR 14bn of capital from BlackRock based upon sustainability considerations, echoing a similar move by the People Pensions Fund earlier this year and showing the unabated engagement of asset owners on sustainable investing.

We are happy to welcome the following organisations as new SSF members or partners:

• Fiera Capital (Asset Manager)
• University of Zurich, Department of Finance (Network Partner)

The full list of our members and network partners, now standing at 265 can be found here.  

• We launched a number of new eLearnings, accessible for free. One opens our upcoming series of learnings on Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Finance, and four more are micro-learnings that complement our core learning on Sustainable Investing. They cover ESG ratings, Greenwashing, Responsible Gold and the Asset Owners perspective.

• 30 September - 2 October 2025: Building Bridges Week
• 15 October 2025: SPII Community Webinar #1 and Swiss Impact Investing Map Launch (online)
• 4 November 2025: Finance meets Real Estate - Thinking together about sustainable real estate financing and circular construction