Results of the research on responsible investment

In June 2023, you will be invited to participate in a survey. The aim of the research is to gain insight into the extent to which the pension fund must invest the money for pension in a responsible manner.

Response
A total of 1,594 participants, former participants and pensioners (hereinafter referred to as participants) gave their opinion. That’s a total response of 9.5%. This group is a good reflection of all participants of the Heineken Pension Fund. This means that we can draw reliable conclusions from the results of the study.

Main outcomes
The most important conclusion is that the current responsible investment (RI) policy is in line with the preferences of the participants of the Heineken Pension Fund. That is why we are continuing the current RI policy.

• The majority consider it important that the pension contribution is invested in a socially responsible manner. On average, it turns out that the younger the respondent, the more important RI.
• The participants expect RI to yield on average the same or slightly lower return.
• A small majority thinks that RI should only be allowed if it yields the same return.
• Age and income levels influence the willingness to potentially receive a lower pension from RI: Young people and respondents with higher incomes are more willing to accept a potentially lower pension than older participants, pensioners and respondents with lower incomes.
• The development goals that the participants consider important are in line with the established sustainability themes Climate, Water and Human Rights. In this way, the Heineken Pension Fund is also in line with the three sustainability themes that HEINEKEN considers important.
• There are several ways in which a pension fund can influence the policy of the company in which it invests in order to ensure that that policy becomes more responsible. The available responsible investment instruments were chosen fairly proportionally by the participants: exclude (25%), best in class (24%), engagement (21%) and vote (19%).

Alignment with the current RI policy
The results of the study are in line with the current RI policy pursued by the pension fund. We believe that the way in which we have designed the RI policy leads to a socially responsible way of investing that can go hand in hand with achieving our ambition as a pension fund: maintaining the purchasing power of pensions by granting allowances.

Socially responsible investing continues to develop. We periodically examine the preferences of our participants and include them in the further development of the RI policy. Would you like to read more about the results of the RI study? Click here for the summary.

More information
In our Annual Overview 2022 you can read the main lines of how we invest socially responsible. Curious about more detailed information? Then we refer you to our Sustainability Report:

• Results part of the Sustainability Report 2022 (only available in Dutch);
• Policy part of the Sustainability Report 2022 (only available in Dutch).