Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI)

Social equality is not only an investment theme but a guiding principle within our own organisation. We adopted our DEI policy in 2024, based on three principles:

Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policy provides a clear framework for embedding our values into everyday practice. In 2023, we identified gaps in gender equality: women represented only one third of our workforce and the reported gender pay gap stood at 166%. We made a decisive leap forward in 2024, reaching gender balance across our overall workforce (50% women), strengthening representation at leadership and supervisory levels, and significantly reducing the gender wage gap (total company level).

In 2025, this balanced gender representation remained stable, with women continuing to represent 50% of the total workforce at VP Capital. The same balance is visible within the Impact and Investment departments, as well as within both the Supervisory Board and the Board, where women also represent 50%.

In 2025, we introduced a more accurate calculation methodology to provide a clearer reflection of the potential gender pay gap. In addition, we refined our analysis by comparing compensation within comparable departments and functional groups. Based on this updated methodology, no structural gender pay gap is observed within our professional teams - including Investments, Impact, Communications, and Support.

As we are a relatively small organisation with several unique roles, we also compared certain positions with external market benchmarks. This analysis shows no significant differences in compensation between men and women performing the same roles.

Our CO₂ footprint

Climate change remains one of the biggest challenges of our time, and we are committed to taking responsibility and action to support mitigation. We actively contribute to the climate transition through investments, but also by reducing our own emissions, including the emissions of our portfolio companies and other investments.

As measurement is the first step, we have calculated our carbon footprint across all three scopes – 1, 2 and 3 – with support from CO2logic (a South Pole company), a consultant specialising in environmental footprint measurement.

Our emissions calculation yielded the following results: in 2025, our total carbon footprint (scopes 1, 2 and 3) was 12,129 tCO₂ equivalent, marking a 3% decrease compared with the previous year.

The table below shows the breakdown of our footprint compared with the previous year:

The breakdown of category 15 - Investments by asset class is as follows:

• mainly driven by large reductions by VP Landbouw, Mediahuis and Batenburg Techniek, the total footprint of our direct participations decreased by 26%. For VP Landbouw, this reduction is due to the decision to discontinue livestock farming. The other two companies have taken significant steps toward electrifying their vehicle fleets.

• the CO2 emissions of our directly held real estate fell by 16%, while the footprint of real estate funds increased by 5%, largely due to as increase in investments as well as in data quality;

• emissions from our listed companies rose by 41% caused by the opening of a new factory by one of the companies;

• emissions linked to our ventures rose by 90%, reflecting a greater allocation to this asset class;

• regarding the impact and impact VC funds, we observed an increase in footprint by 26%, most likely to be explained by changes in data quality;

• non-impact funds recorded a 6% increase, which can be explained by differences in data quality.

Our science-based CO₂ reduction targets

To ensure alignment with climate science, we have submitted our 2030 reduction targets to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) for validation. These near-term targets were officially validated in 2022:

The following table shows the progress we have made towards these targets:

* Both direct investments and real estate funds
** Share of eligible portfolio companies with validated targets, based on invested capital

While we are firmly on track to reach these targets, we are also looking beyond 2030. Last year, SBTi published the Net-Zero Standard for financial institutions, making it possible for us to submit 2050 net zero targets for validation.

Following the publication of this new standard, VP Capital has formally committed to setting long-term targets to reduce value chain emissions in line with a 1.5°C pathway, and to reporting annual progress towards these targets. We plan to submit our targets mid 2026, which will include a substantial recalculation of our near-term targets.

Money for tonne

As part of our journey towards net zero, we continue to take responsibility for the emissions we have not yet been able to eliminate. In recent years, we have done so by offsetting our full carbon footprint through certified carbon credits, earning a “carbon neutral” label in the process. Last year, however, we decided to shift from a “tonne-for-tonne” offsetting model to a “money-for-tonne” contribution approach.

Under this approach, we assign an internal price to every tonne of CO2 we emit and use that to create a dedicated budget. The budget is used to donate to high-impact climate initiatives: projects that align with our strategy, contribute to carbon removal or reduction, and meet clear quality criteria.

Our pledge actions for biodiversity

By signing the Biodiversity Pledge, VP Capital has committed to five key actions:

Assessing our dependency on nature

In 2025, with support of PRé Sustainability, VP Capital conducted a portfolio-wide biodiversity dependency assessment to strengthen our understanding of how our investments rely on nature and ecosystem services.

The assessment was conducted using the ENCORE database, which links economic activities to ecosystem services and assesses dependency levels on a qualitative scale from very low to very high. The analysis provides portfolio- and sector-level insights into how investments depend on ecosystem services, both directly and indirectly through their value chains, and how these dependencies are concentrated when weighed by portfolio allocation.

At an aggregate level, the portfolio shows a relatively low average direct dependency on ecosystem services, with a score of 26 out of 125. However, this overall score masks significant variation between sectors. Agriculture, forestry and fishing show high to very high dependency on multiple ecosystem services, reflecting their strong reliance on natural systems. Other sectors – including manufacturing, information and communication activities, and real estate – show more indirect, but still material, dependencies embedded in supply chains, infrastructure and energy use.

When dependency scores are weighted by invested capital, exposure is particularly concentrated in manufacturing and information and communication activities. This highlights that nature-related dependencies – and associated risks – can also be material in sectors not traditionally perceived as nature-dependent.

These insights help guide engagement with portfolio companies, raise awareness of less visible dependencies across value chains, and inform future investment decisions. Together with our biodiversity impact and footprint assessments, this work supports a more structured integration of nature-related considerations into our long-term investment strategy.

Biodiversity footprinting

Back in 2024, we assessed the biodiversity footprint of our full investment portfolio using the Biodiversity Footprinting for Financials (BFFI) methodology. This provided a high-level view of where our investments are most likely to contribute to biodiversity loss. VP Capital’s portfolio biodiversity footprint was estimated at 26,470 PDF.ha.yr. The main drivers of impact are land use (53%) and global warming (25%), reflecting our exposure to agricultural and forestry-related investments. The results helped identify priority hotspots and guide targeted engagement to reduce biodiversity impacts.

Following this assessment, we also conducted in-depth biodiversity assessments for VP Landbouw and VP Textile, using primary data and life-cycle analysis. For VP Textile, key hotspots were identified in fibre production, fabric pre-processing and product use. For VP Landbouw, the main contributors were land occupation, methane emissions, manure management and fertiliser use, primarily affecting biodiversity through land use and terrestrial global warming. Both VP Textile and VP Landbouw have since developed roadmaps to further reduce their biodiversity footprint in the coming years.

In 2025, our direct investment Batenburg Techniek conducted a biodiversity footprinting study as well.