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  3. Nordic Swan Ecolabelled help savers influence companies

Nordic Swan Ecolabelled help savers influence companies

New surveys from the Swedish Consumer Agency and Blekinge Institute of Technology show that Nordic Swan Ecolabelled investment funds help savers make the right choice and make it easier for fund companies to communicate their ecolabelled financial products in a credible way.

Interest in Nordic Ecolabelled funds continues to increase and affects the fund industry.

Three years have passed since the first Nordic Swan Ecolabelled investment funds were approved. Today, 18,6 billions euro (AUM) in 50 different funds in the Nordic region fulfil Nordic Ecolabelling requirements.

– It is urgent if we want to achieve the climate and environmental goals, and influencing the financial market is therefore extremely important. Choosing a Nordic Swan Ecolabelled fund means that you influence companies in a more sustainable direction. In a short time, we have managed to reach savers in a completely new area for us, the Swedish Consumer Agency shows in a survey. The most common obstacle for not saving sustainably, is the time it takes to find out which investment funds are managed in a more sustainable way, and that is where the Nordic Swan Ecolabel comes in and simplifies the choice, says Per Sandell, Head of financial services at Ecolabelling Sweden.

In the report Consumers and the environment (Swedish Consumer Agency 2020), consumers themselves may evaluate their opportunities for environmentally sustainable choices. Consumers believe that their opportunities have increased to choose financial savings products. The Swedish Consumer Agency points to the Nordic Swan Ecolabelling of investment funds as a contributing factor. The ecolabelling of funds has also influenced investment fund trading. A new study from Blekinge Institute of Technology (Andersson, Mattias and Bernstrup, Erik, 2020) compares Nordic Swan Ecolabelled funds with other ethical funds, and clearly shows that there is a higher demand for ecolabelled funds than for other ethical funds. This concludes that investment fund companies that want to communicate their ethical funds benefit from the Nordic Swan Ecolabel.

Facts about Nordic Swan Ecolabelled investment funds:

- Holistic approach: selects companies with strong sustainability work (at least 50%) and deselects the worst industries. The Nordic Swan Ecolabel also requires that the investment fund will be managed during an open process by reporting all holdings quarterly and publishing a sustainability report for the fund.

- Towards sustainable business: 50 Nordic Swan Ecolabelled investment funds total assets of 18,6 billions euro (AUM) is managed with the aim of influencing companies in a more sustainable direction. - Not more expensive: Ecolabelling Sweden has reviewed and compared funds' annual fees, which are reported in %/year. The annual fee for a Nordic Swan Ecolabelled investment fund is on average 1.07%, compared with 1.38% on average for investment funds in the Swedish market. The majority of Nordic Swan Ecolabelled investment funds are equity funds. For equity funds alone, the average for Nordic Swan Ecolabelled products is 1.24% and for all equity funds in the Swedish market, the average is 1.55%. (Morningstar) AMF's fund fee report 2019.

Nordic Swan Ecolabelling of an investment fund is not a guarantee for the fund's return or for how risky the investment is.

Read more about Nordic Swan Ecolabelled investment funds.

Sources:

Rapport ”Konsumenterna och miljön”, Konsumentverket 2020, KMI-tabell 1

Rapport ”Det är kvinnorna som vänder upp och ner på börsen”, Miljömärkning Sverige 2017.

Essay “Signalling commitment to sustainability on the mutual fund market: An investigation of the Swedish equity mutual fund market” Blekinge Tekniska Högskola (Andersson, Mattias, Bernstrup, Erik 2020)

Calculation of fund fee: Morningstar, AMFs fund fee report .

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