Impact and Sustainability
Introduction
We believe that sustainable business practices create long-lasting value and help mitigate risks in our portfolio. Our investments aim to create positive development impacts such as private sector development in our countries, strengthening of local communities, enabling inclusive development and economic growth, and climate adaptation and mitigation.
We are convinced that the added value that sound environmental and social practices bring to a company not only creates safe and healthy working environments, but also supports corporate governance and financial viability, for example through good risk management.
We invest in countries and sectors which are characterised by considerable sustainability risks that we need to manage. We do this through our Environmental & Social (E&S) and Business Integrity (BI) work, where we assess risks and support the development of business processes in line with international standards. We require and support our portfolio companies to develop robust management systems that enable them to provide jobs with decent working conditions, promote business practices that counter corruption and limit harm to communities and the environment.
Active and continuous monitoring of portfolio companies is a priority, focusing on the issues identified during due diligence (the pre-investment analysis we conduct). Both business and sustainability risks are considered, with regional offices playing a key role in ongoing oversight and monitoring.
Typically, investments are held for seven to ten years, during which we maintain close contact with portfolio companies, ensuring progress on objectives, agreed conditions, and risk management. This is done through site visits, active board work and dialogue, and through the company's annual self-declaration (Swedfund Portfolio Company Sustainability Report).
We report our results in an integrated annual report, which means that sustainability and impact data are audited in the same way as financial results.
Within our social impact and sustainability work, we have developed specific work processes in climate, human rights, gender, decent work and anti-corruption in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals that Swedfund focus on. Read more about the processes and change work in our Guiding Notes (see documents below).
To further support our portfolio companies to advance sustainability of their operations, we also have a specific tool available for them, Technical Assistance. Through Technical Assistance funding our portfolio companies can implement projects and initiatives within the areas of impact on society and sustainability. Read more about Technical Assistance