Sustainability in motion
Our convictions
Sustainability has been embedded in our investment thesis for a long time because we, at InfraVia, are firm believers that sustainable businesses create better returns for our investors and for our stakeholders. Our vision of growth is mindful of the environment and aims to benefit the economy and society as a whole.
We are committed to integrating ESG consideration across the investment cycle, as we believe this can help anticipate risk as well as improve resilience and creating value. Transition is at the core of our ESG philosophy: we believe that every portfolio company should go through this journey at its own pace.
We invest in technologies that can be part of the immediate solution as well as in companies that can accommodate future needs and changing patterns to support the energy transition. We believe that this approach is at the core of how we will collectively reach global sustainability goals.
Our approach
We commit to aligning our investments with the relevant United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), recognizing them as the set of global goals that allow stakeholders to outline sustainability priorities and to speak a common language.
We recognise that our infrastructure and tech portfolio companies can have both positive and negative externalities on their wider environment. In that sense we have identified seven SDG targets that represent our sustainability priorities and are used to analyse the global impact of our portfolio companies on these transversal topics:
5.5
Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities
8.2
Achieve high productivity and sustain economic growth.
8.8
Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments.
9.1
Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure.
10.3
Ensure equal opportunities and reduce inequalities of outcome.
13.3
Fight and adapt to climate change.
16.6
Ensure accountability and transparency.
On top of the transversal approach which constitutes the pillar of the policy, we systematically define sector-specific exposure and cover additional priority SDG targets that are relevant to our infrastructure and technology portfolio companies within their specific sectors. In fact, many of the SDG targets are intertwined and should be looked at in their entirety.
A long-term commitment
We believe that ESG considerations should not be a topic viewed in isolation but needs to be embedded in the company governance and strategy, both for our management company and our portfolio companies.
ESG is a matter that needs to be tackled collectively. We are convinced that all our portfolio companies can take actions on cross-cutting sustainability areas, we commit to providing support to improve their maturity over time and we seek to raise awareness with all our employees and stakeholders as we believe this is the best way to align everyone’s interests.
In 2022 we reviewed and updated our Sustainability Charter intended to reflect our approach and how we aim to contribute to the creation of long-term profitability, sustainability and value for investors, public or private sector partners, entrepreneurs, and the communities involved in our projects.
Year-on-year we strive to go further, our progress is monitored in our annual Sustainability Report.
Exclusion policy
InfraVia as a Management Company has an exclusion policy not to knowingly make an investment in Portfolio Companies primarily engaged in activities including the sale or production of coal, illegal drugs, gambling machines and establishments, prostitution, in material breach of UN conventions and declarations on human rights or directly involved in operations with regards to anti-personnel mines, cluster bombs, chemical, biological and depleted uranium weapons as prohibited by international treaties including Ottawa and Oslo treaties. This exclusion policy might be updated and details on the exclusion policy can be made available to investors in the funds managed by InfraVia upon request.
Regulatory perspective
InfraVia considers, encourages and promotes environmental, social and employees matters, governance, respect for human rights, anticorruption and anti-bribery matters (“Sustainability Factors”) as part of our investment processes.
Infravia Capital Partners level: SFDR requires us as an asset management company to make a “comply or explain” decision whether to consider the principal adverse impacts of our investment decisions on sustainability factors. We have decided to comply with that regime — Principal Adverse Impact Statement.
Our policy on the integration of sustainability risks in our investment processes is detailed in our Sustainability Charter, publicly available on our website. We have updated our procedures to align with our Sustainability Charter and to reflect the integration of sustainability risks in the investment process, as required by SFDR (including its remuneration policy).
Alternative investment funds (AIFs) level: The AIFs that we manage are or will be categorised either (i) as meeting the provisions set out in Article 8 of SFDR for products which promote environmental and social characteristics or (ii) as falling within the scope of Article 6 of SFDR. For further information on SFDR requirements in respect of these AIFs, please refer to the documentation of these AIFs.
For the AIFs that we manage categorized under Article 8 of SFDR and in accordance with Article 10 of SFDR our website contains a description of the environmental or social characteristics or the sustainable investment objective as well as information on the methodologies used to manage the environmental or social characteristics of the product. You will find more information on the specific page of the different funds concerned.
Law of 8 November 2019 on energy and climate (Article 29)
2023 InfraVia Capital Partners report on the inclusion of environmental, social and governance criteria in the investment strategy.
