• Robeco’s Active Ownership team broadens engagement to tackle deforestation, natural resource management, and diversity.
• New focus areas include supply chains in transition minerals and the protection of shareholder rights.
• Evergreen themes like climate change and biodiversity remain central to sustainable investing strategies.

From Climate to Human Capital

Robeco’s Active Ownership team is expanding its engagement themes for 2025, prioritizing deforestation, resource management, and diversity. The new approach builds on its longstanding climate-focused strategy.

“We continue to significantly invest a lot of time in our climate engagement and are now in the process of establishing nature targets connecting to our net-zero roadmap,” said Peter van der Werf, Head of Active Ownership at Robeco.

Efforts to address deforestation are expanding beyond palm oil to include soy, beef, leather, paper, and pulp. Additionally, water and waste will be emphasized under a broader natural resource management theme.

Diversity and Human Capital

The engagement strategy also widens its scope on diversity, zeroing in on human capital management.

“We’re broadening the scope of our work on diversity and inclusion to do more on human capital management,” said van der Werf. “This includes addressing employee relations, satisfaction, and whether employees feel valued at work.”

Fuelling the Transition

Transition minerals, essential for decarbonization technologies, are a new focus area.

Related Article: EU Delays Deforestation Regulation Implementation by One Year but Discards Changes

“Transition minerals are vital for the technologies that are decarbonizing our economy,” said Harry Ashman, engagement specialist.

Robeco will evaluate supply chains across transition sectors, such as electric vehicle batteries, examining critical minerals like nickel, lithium, and cobalt, while addressing environmental and social impacts.

“In our engagement with transition sectors, we’ll be looking at the whole supply chain, from mining to the electrification transition,” added Ghislaine Nadaud, senior sustainability investing specialist.

Protecting Shareholder Rights

Another new theme targets the erosion of shareholder rights caused by business-friendly regulatory changes in various jurisdictions.

“We’ve seen minority shareholder protections weaken in several markets,” said Michiel van Esch, Head of Voting. “Our focus will be on policy engagement to protect investments broadly.”

This policy-oriented approach involves consultations with regulators and advocating for robust shareholder protections.

Long-Term Focus on Evergreen Themes

Robeco emphasizes enduring ESG priorities—climate, biodiversity, and human rights—over launching new themes annually.

“We’re focusing less on starting something new each year, because we want to focus more on long-term risks for our clients’ portfolios,” van der Werf concluded. “By doing so, we aim to create long-term positive impact.”

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