Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
The UN Sustainable Development Goals are the centerpiece of the Agenda 2030 adopted by the United Nations in autumn 2015. They define the social, economic and environmental milestones that are to be jointly achieved on a worldwide basis by 2030. Companies can make a crucial contribution to Agenda 2030. Bellevue takes its responsibilities seriously; accordingly, the company’s sustainability management and core business are as closely aligned with the SDGs as possible.
Entity level
Four SDGs play a central role: quality education (4), gender equality (5), decent work and economic growth (8) and climate action (13). It is in these areas that Bellevue can have the greatest impact at company level.
Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
Bellevue supports training for all employees and encourages lifelong learning.
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Bellevue fosters a culture of gender equality and is committed to ensuring a balanced mixture of gender and age at all hierarchy levels and in all functions of the company.
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Bellevue offers attractive, family-friendly working conditions, promotes diversity, operates a competitive pay policy with equal pay for women and men, and is committed to training and development for its employees.
Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Bellevue ensures that responsible corporate environmentalism contributes to reducing carbon emissions. The remaining emissions are offset through the purchase of CO2 emission certificates equivalent to the greenhouse gases emitted annually.
Portfolio level
Bellevue Asset Management manages all investment strategies in accordance with the requirements of Article 8 of the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). In this connection, the impacts on the 17 UN SDGs are identified for the portfolio companies in the corresponding investment strategies. MSCI ESG Research measures the target contribution of companies to the individual SDGs and categorizes them as «Strongly Aligned», «Aligned», «Neutral», «Misaligned» and «Strongly Misaligned». As soon as there is a positive impact on at least one of the 17 SDGs («Aligned» or «Strongly Aligned») and one or more other SDGs are not negatively impacted at the same time («Misaligned» or «Strongly Misaligned»), Bellevue assumes a positive alignment.
This measurement is undertaken in the context of the definition of a «sustainable investment» within the meaning of the EU Disclosure Regulation 2019/2088 (Art. 2(17)), which is defined as an investment in an economic activity that contributes to an environmental objective and/or a social objective, provided that such investments do not significantly detract from any of those objectives.
The current measurement of the target impact shows that the biggest contributions – viewed across all investment strategies – are in UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) no. 1 (no poverty), no. 3 (good health and well-being) and no. 5 (gender equality).
With our investment focus on the global healthcare sector, Bellevue helps ensure good health and well-being for people of all ages. Innovative medications from the biotech industry as well as investments in diagnostics and healthcare service providers can make an important contribution in this regard. The COVID-19 pandemic caused serious impairment of basic health services, shortened life expectancy and exacerbated imbalances in access to basic health services between countries and people, resulting in a risk that years of progress in a number of healthcare areas are being wiped out. In addition, vaccination rates fell for the first time in 10 years and the number of deaths caused by tuberculosis and malaria increased. Urgent, concerted measures are necessary to put the world back on track to achieving goal 3. Products and services from a number of our portfolio companies make an important contribution to achieving this goal.
Portfolio examples
The Jazz Pharmaceuticals1) position, which is represented in various healthcare portfolios, has extended patient access to medications, including through patient assistance programs, product donations to global aid organizations and financial donations to independent charitable organizations. Another example is portfolio company Danaher2), whose HemoCue and Cepheid testing systems are dedicated to the diagnosis of highly prevalent diseases such as anemia and tuberculosis. Global pharmaceuticals firm Daiichi Sankyo3) promotes a series of projects including research into clinical drug candidates for the treatment of Chagas’ disease, which is classified as a «neglected tropical disease» (NTD).
Summary
In conclusion, it is important to note that investment in a company from the healthcare sector does not automatically equate to an alignment with SDG 3. Evidence of contributions to the UN’s defined goals and indicators is required in order to be able to demonstrate a positive alignment. Although Bellevue periodically measures the target contributions made by its investment products to the 17 UN SDGs, it does not currently manage an impact strategy that has sustainable investment as its objective pursuant to Article 9 (EU SFDR).
1) https://investor.jazzpharma.com/node/19306/html, https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal3
2) https://www.daiichisankyo.com/sustainability/our_approach/sdgs/sdgs_businessmateriality/
3) https://www.danaher.com/sustainability