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Please read this important information before proceeding further. It contains legal and regulatory notices relevant to the information contained on this website.

The information contained in the Website is NOT FOR RETAIL CLIENTS – The information contained in the Website is solely intended for professional investors, defined as investors which (1) qualify as professional clients within the meaning of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), (2) have requested to be treated as professional clients within the meaning of the MiFID or (3) are authorised to receive such information under any other applicable laws. The value of the investments may fluctuate. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested. Neither Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. nor any of its affiliates guarantees the performance or the future returns of any investments. If the currency in which the past performance is displayed differs from the currency of the country in which you reside, then you should be aware that due to exchange rate fluctuations the performance shown may increase or decrease if converted into your local currency.

Robeco Institutional Asset Management UK Limited (“RIAM UK”) markets the Funds of Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. (“ROBECO”) to institutional clients and professional investors only. Private investors seeking information about the Robeco Funds should consult with an Independent Financial Adviser. ROBECO will not be liable for any damages or losses suffered by private investors accessing the website.

RIAM UK is an authorised distributor for ROBECO Funds in the UK and has marketing approval for the funds listed on the website, all of which are UCITS Funds. ROBECO is authorised by the AFM and subject to limited regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Many of the protections provided by the United Kingdom regulatory framework may not apply to investments in ROBECO Funds, including access to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and the Financial Ombudsman Service. No representation, warranty or undertaking is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information on this website.

If you are not an institutional client or professional investor, you should therefore not proceed. By proceeding, please note that we will be treating you as a professional client for regulatory purposes and you agree to be bound by our terms and conditions.

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Sustainable investing - The journey

Exclusions and screenings

Exclusions are the oldest and likely the most well-known sustainable investment tool, and remain a very powerful one in sustainable investing – especially for those investors with a clear view on which products or behaviors are incompatible with their values, standards and beliefs.

Carrying out stewardship responsibilities is an integral part of Robeco’s sustainable investing approach. As such, we want to avoid making any investments in business practices that we or our clients believe are detrimental to society or the planet or otherwise incompatible with sustainable investment strategies. Therefore, certain exclusion criteria are applied to all portfolios, at our discretion.

Exclusion policy


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Devil in the details

On the face of it, exclusions are a relatively straightforward strategy to implement. But excluding companies or entire sectors for non-financial reasons can also have a unwanted impact on the risk/return characteristics of a portfolio, and investors have to ask themselves some difficult questions. Will excluding a company lead to its products being removed from the market? Much like someone boycotting a pet store because they sell puppies, in a bid to protect animal wellbeing, won’t stop other customers buying a furry friend there. And the original customer will have missed the chance to persuade the owner to limit their range to pet food.

In other words, there are other ways to effect change. As so often in investing, the devil lies in the details when it comes to implementation. Exclusions at Robeco are therefore not as simple as a list of sin stocks, but rather a means of setting a minimum standard for what we deem to be investible as an asset manager.

Sin stocks & evolving controversies

Aside from the investor’s own ethics and values, there are products and business practices that are commonly deemed controversial (sin stocks): tobacco, weapons, alcohol, gambling, and pornography.

But what is deemed controversial evolves. In recent years it has become more common to exclude, product-wise for example, the worst climate offenders such as thermal coal and gas. On the behavioral side, the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact are often used as a guide in deciding which areas warrant exclusion.

Screenings

Exclusions in itself might not always be as impactful as we would wish, but they play an important role in the full suite of tools available to a sustainable investor. Exclusion can be especially useful when framed as potential repercussion for a company (or country) if they fail to meet the objectives set out as part of engagement.

Screenings always precede exclusions and can be divided into the type, based on controversial behavior (directly or after engagement); and the less common type, or even on country-level screening. All of these may result in exclusion.

There are further screening tools to align the investment universe with the intentions of a portfolio.

At Robeco, we make use of several types of screening depending on the intentions of the strategy that lead to exclusions. To give a few examples, we use the ‘blocks’ described below:

  • SDG screenings ensure the eligible investment universe is defined with companies meeting a threshold predefined by the SDGs

  • Stricter activity-based exclusions for fossil fuel activities apply for climate strategies

  • Negative screening is used to deselect low ESG-performing parts of the investment universe, for example for our Gender strategy

  • Screening to make sure we only capture those companies that contribute to a specific sustainable theme


On the surface exclusions may seem as the easy one of all the ESG building blocks available to a sustainable investor, but one step deeper and the view point may change. Exclusions are not ‘just’ exclusions; they require insight and research into companies operations and products as well as an integrated approach where multiple types of screening and active ownership tools may need to come together to ensure the intensions of an investor are properly addressed.


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Robeco aims to enable its clients to achieve their financial and sustainability goals by providing superior investment returns and solutions.

Important information This disclaimer applies to any documents and the verbal or written comments of any person in presentations or webinars on this website and taken together is referred to herein as the “Information”. The services to which the Information relate are NOT FOR RETAIL CLIENTS - The information contained in the Website is solely intended for professional investors, defined as investors which (1) qualify as professional clients within the meaning of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), (2) have requested to be treated as professional clients within the meaning of the MiFID or (3) are authorized to receive such information under any other applicable laws and must not be relied or acted upon by any other persons. This Information does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any financial product, and may not be relied upon in connection with the purchase or sale of any financial product. You are cautioned against using this Information as the basis for making a decision to purchase any financial product. To the extent that you rely on the Information in connection with any investment decision, you do so at your own risk. The Information does not purport to be complete on any topic addressed. The Information may contain data or analysis prepared by third parties and no representation or warranty about the accuracy of such data or analysis is provided.
In all cases where historical performance is presented, please note that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results and should not be relied upon as the basis for making an investment decision. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested. Neither Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. nor any of its affiliates guarantees the performance or the future returns of any investments. If the currency in which the past performance is displayed differs from the currency of the country in which you reside, then you should be aware that due to exchange rate fluctuations the performance shown may increase or decrease if converted into your local currency. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. (“Robeco”) expressly prohibits any redistribution of the Information without the prior written consent of Robeco. The Information is not intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity in any jurisdiction or country where such distribution or use is contrary to law, rule or regulation. Certain information contained in the Information includes calculations or figures that have been prepared internally and have not been audited or verified by a third party. Use of different methods for preparing, calculating or presenting information may lead to different results. Robeco Institutional Asset Management UK Limited (“RIAM UK”) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. RIAM UK, 30 Fenchurch Street, Part Level 8, London EC3M 3BD (FCA Reference No:1007814). The company is registered in England and Wales under Ref No. 15362605.

In all cases where historical performance is presented, please note that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results and should not be relied upon as the basis for making an investment decision. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested. Neither Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. nor any of its affiliates guarantees the performance or the future returns of any investments. If the currency in which the past performance is displayed differs from the currency of the country in which you reside, then you should be aware that due to exchange rate fluctuations the performance shown may increase or decrease if converted into your local currency. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. (“Robeco”) expressly prohibits any redistribution of the Information without the prior written consent of Robeco. The Information is not intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity in any jurisdiction or country where such distribution or use is contrary to law, rule or regulation. Certain information contained in the Information includes calculations or figures that have been prepared internally and have not been audited or verified by a third party. Use of different methods for preparing, calculating or presenting information may lead to different results. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. is authorised as a manager of UCITS and AIFs by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets and subject to limited regulation in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority. Details about the extent of our regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority are available from us on request.