Montréal, November 17, 2022 – As a recognized leader in responsible investment, Bâtirente unveiled its ambitious climate commitment in 2020. For the past two years, we have undertaken concrete actions that reassure us of closing in on achieving our goals by 2025.
This commitment is based on measured and achievable ambitions—a challenge for our entire civilization—to tackle the global warming issue. Our aim is to progressively reduce our climate risk exposure by 50%, invest in the transition, target our shareholder engagement and collaborate with our partners. Today we unveil positive and encouraging results for the future:
- The overall carbon footprint of our portfolios for 2021 was 26% less than that of reference portfolios. We also note a 16% decrease after three years in our carbon intensity. Thanks to these actions, we are confident that, by 2025, we will be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions attributable to the equity portfolios of Bâtirente Funds by 50% compared with their 2018 carbon footprint.
- We significantly increased our impact investments to actively contribute to environmental solutions and take part in the transition to a low-carbon economy. Since 2018, our impact investments have climbed by $160M, representing 25% of our total assets.
- On our behalf, our partner Æquo, Shareholder Engagement Services held climate-focused dialogues with 26 companies in 2021, and a number of objectives were met. In 2022, dialogues held with Imperial Oil resulted in that company’s commitment to increase its climate efforts.
- We are a founding member of Climate Engagement Canada (CEC) and a signatory of the new [wpfilebase tag=fileurl id=357 linktext=’*Canadian Investor Statement on Climate Change’ /]. As part of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, Bâtirente signed the 2021 Global Investor Statement to Governments on the Climate Crisis. The letter calls on governments to raise their ambition and accelerate their actions for fighting climate change.
“Responsible investment has always been at the heart of Bâtirente’s values and actions. We recognize that climate change is a major threat, and that collective action is urgently needed. Thanks to this ambitious climate commitment, Bâtirente contributes to the well-being of its members and that of the planet,” says Bâtirente CEO Éric Filion.
[wpfilebase tag=fileurl id=414 linktext=’*2021 Carbon Footprint Report’ /]
Climate Commitment
About Bâtirente
Bâtirente is a group retirement system created in 1987 at the initiative of the CSN. It allows 26,000 workers, grouped in 318 labour unions, to benefit from pension plans tailored to their needs by pooling their savings.
A leader in responsible investing, Bâtirente believes that actively managing its investee companies’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks helps ensure sound capitalization of the pension plan as well as long-term economic and social development, which are both required for sustainable financial performance.
For more information
Katya Vanbeselaere, Communications and Marketing Manager
514 525-5740, ext. 2425
kv@batirente.com