Photo Shutterstock Pension fund ABP will rewrite its Sustainable & Responsible Investment Policy for investments in businesses that contribute to deforestation and diversity loss. Thus report a group of critical WUR employees that have discussed this issue with ABP.
These staff members, united as the ‘Grey Hair, Green Forests’ group, protest against investments by ABP in livestock and mining businesses in Brazil. The WUR employees say that ABP has not formulated clear criteria on how to prevent deforestation, carbon emissions and biodiversity loss in its investment policy.
During a dialogue that took place on 9 September, the WUR employees advised the pension fund on how to improve monitoring of the impact of its investments and how ABP, as a shareholder, can proactively demand information on the sustainability of a business’ production. ABP agreed to include this criticism in the revision of the Sustainable & Responsible Investment Policy in November. This revised policy is to be implemented in mid-2022.
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The dialogue between the WUR employees and ABP was a constructive one, the protesters report in a blog. ABP wants to stay in touch with the WUR employees to discuss how to prevent deforestation.
In a separate case, a group of employees from several universities have announced legal action against ABP. They demand a stop to ABP investments in fossil fuels.
