Digital library on sustainable finance
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In 2022, the European Impact Investing Consortium partnered with academic institutions to harmonize and assess Europe’s impact investing market. The goal was to shed light on the market's dynamics, trends, and practices. This newly published report is designed to provide investors, policymakers, and market leaders with valuable insights to make informed decisions, align strategies with global challenges, and unlock opportunities for collaboration.
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This rating conducted by WWF assesses the sustainability of the largest 15 Swiss retail banks and the Alternative Bank Switzerland. The report assesses the following three main areas: Corporate management, saving, investing and retirement planning, and loans and financing. Most banks achieved moderate results, showing some progress compared to past ratings, but in general still fall short of achieving Switzerland’s climate and biodiversity goals. Hence, significant efforts are still needed across the sector to align business models with sustainability targets and drive a successful green transition.
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The International Organization for Standardizations' (ISO) ESG Implementation Principles (IWA 48) is a high-level structure and set of principles designed to guide organizations in implementing and embedding Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices within their organizational culture. This document supports the management of ESG performance and facilitates measurement and reporting under existing frameworks, enabling consistency, comparability, and reliability of ESG reporting and practices globally.
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Framework for implementing environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles - EN
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This report assesses the quality of sustainability reports from major Swiss companies, impacting transparency and investor decision-making on ESG issues. Ethos sees mandatory and improved reporting as an important basis for non-financial performance assessment that will reduce greenwashing and help Switzerland align with European standards.
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2024 Study – General Meetings and Sustainability Reports - EN
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This publication by Symbiotics delves into the factors behind the reluctance of investors to increase their investments in emerging markets. Impact investing in emerging markets is often excluded from investment strategies and the authors attribute this to a psychological bias towards risk aversion amplified by negative media coverage and asset allocations with a domestic bias. However, emerging markets are projected to contribute 70% of future global growth, making their inclusion vital for capitalizing on this potential. Many risks, such as sovereign risk, are often overstated. The report illustrates that default rates in emerging markets are comparable to those in developed markets and that the lower correlation of emerging market currencies to the dollar offers better diversification.
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This quarterly report examines open-end funds and ETFs focused on impact, sustainability, or ESG risk factors. In Q3 2024, sustainable funds saw net inflows of USD 10.4 billion, mainly from Europe, while the US saw reduced outflows. Global sustainable fund assets grew by 6%, reaching USD 3.3 trillion, aided by stock gains. New fund launches declined, with more closures and rebrandings, especially in Europe, as funds prepare for incoming anti-greenwashing regulations.
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The mission of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) is to ‘halt and reverse biodiversity loss’ by 2030, with a 2050 vision of ‘a world living in harmony with nature’. The GBF has been endorsed by almost 200 national governments. Delivering the transition implied by the GBF will require significant changes to business practices across all sectors. Transition planning offers a way to manage an organisation’s responses and contributions to this transition in a coherent, structured way. This process is already well established for the net zero transition. The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) has developed draft guidance to help organisations develop and disclose nature transition plans.
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As nature-related risks increasingly impact financial markets and business decision-making, access to high-quality, timely and decision-useful data has become essential. The goal of the paper is to help empower corporates and financial institutions to understand their nature-related dependencies and impacts.
This discussion paper outlines a roadmap to accessing high-quality, decision-useful nature data.
Key focus areas
- The fast emergence of corporate reporting architecture and the introduction of mandatory climate- and nature-related reporting standards in Europe, China and elsewhere.
- Three new demand signals from the private sector for nature-related data.
- A proposed roadmap for further action.
- 10 proposed data principles.
- Understanding the requirements of a Nature Data Public Facility.
Key outcomes
- The resilience of every business depends on the resilience of nature.
- There is an urgent need to improve access to timely, comprehensive and decision-useful, nature-related data for corporate decision makers and capital providers.
- The TNFD has assembled a global coalition of leading organisations and experts to outline how to address the challenges of upgrading the nature data value chain.
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A roadmap for upgrading market access to decision-useful nature-related data - EN
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This guide aims to share the results of research done into public understanding of various terms around sustainable investing. The guide aims to respond to the frequently encountered challenge of low end-investor awareness of the options available and the meaning of industry terms like ESG, Responsible Investing, and Impact Investing.
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This report, sourcing data from 305 organizations across 39 countries, highlights 14% CAGR in impact investing assets, a shift toward equity-like debt and public assets, and high investor satisfaction despite unmet targets. Key trends include increased data-sharing, diversified impact measurement frameworks, and a push for third-party verification, signaling a more accountable and mature impact investing market.
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State of the Market 2024 - Trends, Performance and Allocations - EN
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Deforestation impacts local and global climate, biodiversity, and ecosystem services, underscoring the critical link between deforestation and both climate- and nature-related risks and opportunities. To support effective deforestation disclosure, this guide outlines four essential steps: adopting deforestation-free finance guidance, carrying out deforestation-specific disclosure, integrating these risks into climate- and nature-related financial disclosures and transition plans, and striving for comprehensive, holistic disclosure. It provides practical advice on disclosing material risks and risk management actions related to financed deforestation and land-use change, using tools like the Deforestation-Free Finance Roadmap and platforms such as CDP. Additionally, the guide details how to include deforestation risks in IFRS S2 and TNFD disclosures, meet mandatory reporting requirements, and highlights the role of nature protection in net-zero transition plans.
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Deforestation Disclosure Guide for Financial Institutions - EN
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Der neue Benchmark Report bietet den Verbandsmitgliedern von SwissFoundations zum neunten Mal die exklusive Gelegenheit, Renditen und Kosten in der Vermögensbewirtschaftung innerhalb des Mitgliederkreises zu vergleichen. Gemeinsam wird somit nicht nur die verbandsinterne Transparenz gefördert, sondern auch zur Professionalisierung in der Vermögensverwaltung beigetragen.
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our essential guide to the new European regulatory architecture for sustainable finance, its key concepts and regulations. The book introduces you to this new field of finance, which has experienced a true regulatory tsunami over the past few year…
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The SVVK-ASIR Engagement Report provides information on the association's engagement activities. In the last two years, it has intensified its dialogue with companies, particularly in the Swiss domestic market. In 2022 and 2023, the association conducted 176 and 170 engagement dialogues respectively, more than half of them on human and labour rights. 19 cases were successfully concluded, but climate change remained a key issue and the focus was also increasingly on Switzerland. In summer 2023, SVVK surveyed around 20 property fund providers on their net zero plans, revealing major differences in sustainability reports and measures.
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Engagement Report 2022/23 - DE
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Financial institutions are reshaping their business models to address the challenge of sustainability. In this roundup, scholars and practitioners explore the progress made and the obstacles that remain. Banks and investors are increasingly incorporating climate risks into their decision-making processes. Yet today, these risks are not always correctly priced in financial markets. Greater coordination between public and private initiatives could help ensure sufficient capital flows toward sustainable investments to meet global targets. The insights shared by the experts shed light on the part that sustainable finance can play in enabling the shift to a sustainable economy
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Climate-Related Risks— A Focus on Banks and Credit Risk - DE
Climate-Related Risks— A Focus on Banks and Credit Risk - FR
Climate-Related Risks— A Focus on Banks and Credit Risk - IT
Climate-Related Risks— A Focus on Banks and Credit Risk - EN
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This guide sheds light on how the financial sector contributes to deforestation and conversion of other ecosystems than forests, calling on central banks, financial regulators and supervisors to put in place adequate monetary, regulatory and supervisory measures. In its first section, the report sets out the importance of forests and other threatened terrestrial ecosystems to life on Earth in general, and humanity in particular. The second section explains why deforestation and conversion are critical for central banks, financial regulators and supervisors and the third section describes the actions taken by some of these players.
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At the request of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, this report takes stock of regulatory and supervisory initiatives associated with the identification and assessment of nature-related financial risks. The stocktake also enquires about the perceptions of central banks and supervisors regarding whether nature degradation, such as biodiversity loss, is a relevant financial risk. It draws on a survey of participating Financial Stability Board members and the work done by international organisations, including the conceptual framework developed by the Network for Greening the Financial System and work done by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and funded by the European Union, on nature-related risks.
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Energy-efficient refurbishments require considerable financial resources. They result in market appreciation due to the refurbishment, improved convertibility of the property and additional rental income. Wüest Partner has comprehensively modelled how often and under what conditions this is economically worthwhile for property owners for the Swiss residential building stock.
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Wirtschaftlichkeit der energetischen Sanierung des Wohngebäudeparks - DE
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This publication adapts established valuation techniques in an innovative way to assess how the value of global equities can be affected by physical climate damage and by transition costs for different degrees of aggressiveness of the abatement policy. The topic is not only relevant for investors, but also to regulators, who want to understand how the climate-sensitive assets held by systemically important financial institutions may deteriorate in value and, by so doing, endanger the liquidity and solvency of the institutions, and threaten financial stability.
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How does Climate Risk Affect Global Equity Valuations? - A Novel Approach - EN
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The Swisscanto by ZKB (Zürcher Kantonalbank) report on Swiss Pension funds is published in its 2024 edition. The second pillar is stable just before the vote on the BVG reform. The 24th edition of the Swiss Pension Fund Study confirms: the long-term reduction in occupational pension benefits has been halted. After a good year on the stock market in 2023, the financial situation of the pension funds is solid, and for the first time, benefit improvements are in sight again. According to the study, 39% of all respondents have anchored ESG criteria in their investment policy, a plus of 2 percentage points compared to the previous year.
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The 2024 edition of the Swiss Sustainable Investment Market Study not only provides an overview of sustainability-related investment volumes but also offers invaluable insights into the Swiss sustainable investment landscape, regulatory updates, sustainable investment approaches and much more.
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This document provides additional guidance for financial institutions to apply the TNFD Recommendations. The guidance applies to banks, re/insurance companies, asset managers and owners, and development finance institutions.
Version 1.0 of this guidance was published in September 2023 alongside the TNFD Recommendations
Key focus areas:
- Guidance for financial institutions on the TNFD Recommendations
- Guidance on the TNFD metrics architecture for financial institutions, including a set of final TNFD disclosure metrics for financial institutions
- A list of reference sectors to support the application of the core disclosure metric for financial institutions on exposure to sectors
- A mapping to the TNFD core global metrics of the European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) Principal Adverse Impact metrics
- Additional resources and references on nature-related issues for financial institutions
Key outcomes:
- Overview of the TNFD’s disclosure guidance for financial institutions
- Overview of TNFD metrics guidance for the financial sector
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The ESG Reporting Survey examines how Swiss companies anticipate regulatory developments to prepare for new disclosure requirements and how they integrate these developments strategically and organizationally. The first study analyzed responses from around 100 predominantly Swiss-based companies on the incorporation of ESG topics into strategy and governance, the determinants of ESG reporting implementation, and the maturity and diversity of companies regarding the digitization of reporting processes.
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This report explores why and how corporate impact actors create synergies between impact investing and other corporate areas including philanthropy, sustainability, corporate venture capital, supply chain, product and service innovation, human resources and sustainability. These synergies present opportunities for both impact and business audiences. The report concludes with five essential steps to get started with impact investing.
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The authors of this public discussion note argue that criticism of ESG investing, often referred to as 'woke capitalism', is based on misconceptions about its financial value, such as increasing company value and reducing risk. They emphasise that managing ESG risks, such as climate and biodiversity, is critical for institutional investors. By addressing these risks, investors can create financial value and contribute to societal challenges, underscoring the importance of their role in the green transition amid growing backlash.
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SFI Public Discussion Note The Value of ESG: Where and Why It Matters - DE
SFI Public Discussion Note The Value of ESG: Where and Why It Matters - FR
SFI Public Discussion Note The Value of ESG: Where and Why It Matters - IT
SFI Public Discussion Note The Value of ESG: Where and Why It Matters - EN
