Wouter ten Brinke

Managing Director Client Portfolio Management

Ferry Vos

Managing Director Client Portfolio Management

As part of our commitment to responsible investing, Anthos has taken significant steps to integrate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities into our investment process and frameworks. The OCIO team understands the importance of addressing climate change and sustainability topics in our investment strategies and have implemented various measures to consider these factors.


At Anthos, we approach ESG risks from a bottom-up perspective, focusing on the specific investments within our portfolios. While our OCIO team currently allocates to benchmarks and asset classes without explicit consideration of ESG factors, we do have certain ESG considerations in place. For instance, some of our clients have decided against investing in commodities due to the perceived poor sustainability credentials. However, we understand the need to critically evaluate such decisions, especially considering the role of commodities in achieving energy transition and sustainable development goals.


This is a matter of values for each client, which is why we developed a comprehensive seven-step investment process as part of our OCIO services. This process aims to determine what are our clients’ values, needs, and preferences are within the macro-economic context. We then help our clients realise these ambitions.

In 2020, we established a working group dedicated to understanding the implications of climate change for our firm. In our efforts to evaluate climate risks, we conducted a value-at-risk analysis on multi-asset client portfolios. The results indicated that, while climate risk is undoubtedly important, it poses a relatively low financial risk in several temperature-changed scenarios. If you think that markets are incredibly efficient at pricing risks, this makes sense within the context of gradual temperature increases.


As part of prudent risk management, we concluded that it is currently more effective to focus on addressing climate change through bottom-up investment strategies, rather than incorporating top-down strategic asset allocation. We maintain a constant monitoring of climate as a macro risk factor, documenting our approach in our policies, annual investment outlook, and regular client conversations.

Furthermore, we have observed an increase in demand and concern among our stakeholders regarding climate-related matters. This growing awareness has allowed us to engage in serious discussions at the highest level of governance for our institutional clients. We firmly believe that climate considerations should not be confined to a particular team but should be integrated into the broader decision-making process.


However, challenges persist for fiduciary managers and OCIO investors seeking to further embed climate considerations in decision-making. The need for more evidence of financial risks in the models and the availability and quality of ESG data pose significant challenges. Additionally, implementing ESG benchmarks may expose clients to financial risks, as demonstrated by underperformance in 2022. Carbon emissions data is particularly complex and imperfect, especially when investing across the multi-asset empire of public and private asset classes

“We firmly believe that climate considerations should not be confined to a particular team but should be integrated into the broader decision-making process.”

Nevertheless, our core expertise lies in taking a long-term view on market returns and capital allocation. We conduct extensive analysis of climate risks, including physical, transitional, and opportunities, associated with integrating climate considerations into our investment process. Currently, we rely on the expertise of our managers, who align with our rigorous responsible investment policies at the bottom-up level, where the picture is clearer.


Looking ahead, in 2023, we are conducting a comprehensive gap analysis to identify the necessary top-down actions to achieve our net-zero ambition by 2040. We are excited to review the results and openly discuss them with our clients. These findings will serve as a baseline for engaging in meaningful conversations with other investors and experts facing similar challenges. We eagerly anticipate sharing our conclusions in next year's annual report.


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