Fondita strengthens its expertise in responsible investing by setting up an ESG committee

Fondita’s aim is to continuously develop its responsible investment work. Portfolio managers are in their daily work responsible for integrating sustainability aspects in investment decisions and to monitor regulatory requirements and related news flow.  

The development of responsible investing is an ongoing process. Changing regulatory and reporting requirements require vigilance and up-to-date information. At the same time, the global focus on sustainability and responsibility has grown enormously, which we believe requires an increasingly broad range of expertise to support investment decisions. Companies may also be facing sustainability risks that requires a broader review.

For this reason, Fondita established an ESG Committee at the end of 2021, which held its first meeting on the 20th of January 2022. The purpose of the Committee is to meet on a regular basis to further strengthen Fondita’s responsible investment work, ensure that the required level of regulatory reporting is maintained, anticipate sustainability trends and changes and, where necessary, discuss norm breaches or other company specific ESG issues. The Committee reports on its activities to the Board of Fondita.  

The Committee includes representatives from portfolio management and sales, our ESG analyst and an external expert member. The role of the external member of the Committee is to act as an expert speaking partner and informal advisor.  

It was important for Fondita to gain high-level, external expertise from outside our own company in, so we invited Hanna Silvola (PhD), to work with us. Hanna has extensive expertise in responsible investments. She currently works as an Associate Professor in Accounting and teaches responsible investing at Hanken and in executive education programmes. Silvola’s research areas include measuring, reporting, verifying, and interpreting corporate sustainability information as part of financial information and decision-making. Silvola has lectured at the London School of Economics and visited Stanford University. 

“Financial markets are in a green transition towards a carbon-neutral society. Cooperation between universities and the financial sector is important because responsible investing and related regulatory requirements are evolving at a tremendous pace. As an external expert member of Fondita’s ESG Committee, I can bring insights from the world of science to responsible investing“ Hanna Silvola says.   

ESG Committee members in 2022 
Marcus Björkstén – Portfolio Manager 
Janna Haahtela – Portfolio Manager 
Isabelle Ramsay – ESG analyst 
Hanna Silvola – Expert Member 
Fredrik von Knorring – Sales Director 

In early spring, Fondita will publish its first Responsible Investment Annual Review and our website will also get a completely new look, with an important and comprehensive section for responsible investing.