Family office VP Capital releases its annual Sustainable Progress Report: total score of its investment portfolio for ESG and Impact rises to 7.1
Turnhout, 28 June 2022 – The family office of the van Puijenbroek family wants to use its capital to actively contribute to the sustainable acceleration and improvement of social and planetary challenges. The family strongly believes that we can address these challenges through dialogue, transparency, and cooperation. With its annual Progress Report, VP Capital shares its sustainable progress and insights from the past year within the field of impact investing, donations, and the further sustainable transformation of its direct investments.
The impact sector is growing rapidly, in addition to the aftermath of the COVID 19 pandemic, due to various climate developments, and strong macro trends in the global economy. Sustainable investment is increasingly evolving from a niche sector to a mainstream movement. Investments in decarbonisation, biodiversity, inequality, poverty, financial inclusion, access to education, healthcare, and affordable housing are growing.
Since 2018, VP Capital has been following a sustainability strategy whereby its approximately 400 direct or indirect investments are independently screened annually against ESG and Impact criteria. This is the third year that the Progress Report has been transparently shared. The main results of the Sustainable Progress Report ’21 published today are:
Total score, measuring both ESG and impact of the entire portfolio rises to 7.1 (compared to 6.8 in 2020)
Capital invested in solutions for planetary and social challenges increased to 78% (compared to 76% in 2020)
Active monitoring role and dialogue with own portfolio on ESG/Impact at 95% of the portfolio (compared to 84% in 2020)
Donations increased to €1m (compared to €0.6m in 2020)
The 2021 efforts resulted in VP Capital recently becoming one of the first family offices in Europe to obtain the B Corp label and the SBTi validation of their climate targets.
Guus van Puijenbroek, Director of VP Capital, says, “As a family, we are convinced of the contribution we can make to both the social and environmental challenges in this world. The balance between risk, return, and positive impact on all stakeholders is central to our investment policy. We feel responsible for creating value that is broader than profit. The score, which we have achieved together with our companies and partners, shows that we are getting better at this. At the same time, we also feel the need to continue to accelerate that progress. This can only be done together, by sharing knowledge and experience transparently and actively engaging in dialogue. For us, that makes the difference between investing and sustainable investing, and is why we have been compiling and sharing the Progress Report for the past three years.”
New in the 2021 reporting is the deepening of the ESG and Impact screening of real estate, donations, and contributions to so-called disadvantaged communities. In addition, this year marks the first time that the link between future European legislation (including taxonomy and SFDR) and climate risks was made. The dialogue with other family offices also continued in 2021 and a round table for family offices took place.
The current strategy is in effect until 2023. The objective is then to achieve an overall score of 8 and ensure that 80% of the capital is related to solutions for global issues. Impact investments must make up 45% of total assets by 2023.