12.2.1.2 Asset management companies

The choice to involve asset management companies rather than asset owners was based on the fact that the latter commonly delegate the management of large parts of their assets to asset managers (see Figure 2). Asset managers have substantial amounts 'under management' which they invest in companies' listed and unlisted stock, debt instruments, real estate and other types of assets. Asset managers follow the wishes of their clients, the asset owners. Interviewees from the asset managers group indicated that they receive few instructions from their clients regarding ESG factors. If any, the instructions often only address two or three exclusionary principles. Institutional investors are, as yet, not very interested in the BES performance of the invested assets. However, as explained above, ignoring BES performance poses a risk to the continuity of financial returns. Since risk estimation is the task of the asset managers, it was interesting to exchange views about dependency relationships between BES performance and the return on investments.

Most of the asset managers interviewed are familiar with the concept of ' biodiversity' but, at the same time they indicated that they consider the concept to be very complex. Most of them have also heard of the concept of 'ecosystem services', but few have a perspective on how biodiversity loss can affect companies' business.1 None of the asset managers interviewed specifically assesses biodiversity in their investment decision-making process. However, they do deliberate on possible controversies regarding companies and biodiversity issues with high public visibility. Also, certain sub-themes, such as water2 or habitat destruction, have been pinpointed as elements to be considered in taking investment decisions. One of the interviewees is aware that biodiversity information is included in the ESG data which they buy, but did not see any merit in immediate use in the investment decision-making process. Furthermore, there is generally little awareness concerning current initiatives by NGOs or ESG Agencies which are developing tools in this area. Some of the ESG Agencies however noted that a growing number of the signatories to the UN PRI indicate that they (wish to) pay attention to biodiversity as an ESG issue.