The Second Swedish National Pension Fund/AP2 and some 30 other major investment managers have signed the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). Other Swedish signatories are Banco and Folksam.

Since 2004, AP2 has cooperated with Swiss investment manager SAM (Sustainable Asset Management), with a view to integrating ethics and environmental issues as part of the fund management process. Analytical reports produced by SAM have also formed the basis for conducting a dialogue with the Fund’s largest Swedish shareholdings. AP2 is a participant in the Carbon Disclosure Project, where some 100 fund and investment managers have challenged the world’s largest companies to state their views on climate change and on the business activities in which their companies are engaged. The Fund is also a joint sponsor of Göteborgs Stora Miljöpris (City of Göteborg International Environment Prize).

“Our signature of the PRI document should be seen as a declaration of intent. We believe environmental and ethical issues are important, and should form an integral part of the investment process. At the same time, it is also important to remember that we are only at the start of a long process, a process during which these issues will acquire growing significance,” says CEO Eva Halvarsson, Second Swedish National Pension Fund.

For further details, please call Carl Rosén, Head of Corporate Governance & Communications, Second Swedish National Pension Fund, at +46 (0)739 40 10 10.

Check the PRI website at http://www.unpri.org for a photo of the official signing ceremony.