Engagement
APG enters into dialogue with many of its investee companies and investment entities in order to influence them to improve their performance on the focus themes. We often cooperate with other investors and regularly discuss sustainability and shareholder rights with legislators and regulatory bodies to increase our impact. For example, we collaborate with other major investors through the Dutch Engagement Coalition, Climate Action 100+ and Nature Action 100+ to engage with companies to reduce their CO2 emissions and promote the transition to low-carbon and nature positive business models. We are also a member of the Global Real Estate Engagement Network (GREEN), an initiative to help accelerate sustainability in the real estate sector. Find out more about the companies we engaged with in 2024 and the topics we discussed here.
Voting
APG actively exercises its rights as a shareholder to ensure investee accountability against the focus themes. We vote at shareholder meetings of the listed companies in which we invest in line with our clients’ voting policies where we consider company performance against matters such as climate disclosures and executive remuneration. We sometimes link the process to engagement by using our votes as part of an escalation strategy. We publish our voting behavior on our website and provide explanations of how we voted. Our Corporate Governance and Voting approach gives more information on how we implement our voting practices and align with our clients’ long term interests.
Our Stewardship Overview 2024 contains more details on our recent engagement and voting activities.
Responsible Investment Instruments
Inclusion
ESG factors and responsible business practices can have an impact on investment risks and opportunities, and so we evaluate companies we can invest in based on risk, return, cost and the degree to which they operate responsibly. A proprietary method, outlined in the Inclusion Policy, is used to assess companies on the basis of ESG criteria. If a company does not meet these criteria, we can only invest if we believe we can encourage it to improve its sustainability performance.
Exclusion
Our pension fund clients do not want to invest in certain products and government bonds. These are laid out in the Exclusion Policy. We do not invest in manufacturers of weapons that are prohibited by international treaties signed by the Netherlands, tobacco companies, or in companies that manufacture (major components of) nuclear weapons. In the case of government bonds, we do not invest in the bonds of countries on which the UN Security Council or the European Union has imposed a binding arms embargo.
Sustainable Development Investments (SDIs)
€102 billion (19.7% of invested assets) invested in the Sustainable Development Goals
We actively search for investments for our pension fund clients that contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2019, APG joined forces with PGGM, AustralianSuper and BCI, to form the SDI AOP platform and create a common definition for SDIs that allows us to report on and engage with investees on SDGs contribution in a comparable way. In 2025, SDI AOP became part of Net Purpose, and we encourage investors across the globe to join us in accelerating and improving the way we invest in the SDGs.
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