The carbon footprint of our investment portfolios

Our invested assets impact and influence global carbon emissions and society’s climate-related risk. In 2020, the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), a global partnership of financial institutions, released a standard for accounting and reporting of greenhouse gases in financial services companies’ investment and lending portfolios. We used the PCAF methodology to calculate the financed emissions (carbon footprint) of our listed equity and corporate bond portfolios in 2021. A breakdown of the carbon intensity of these portfolios and data quality metrics can be found in Financed emissions of investment portfolios.

Our invested assets are one of the most significant levers we can use to catalyze climate action for a net-zero future. By 2025, we will reduce the economic emission intensity of our investments by 25% from 2020 levels (including public equities and publicly-traded bond portfolios). By no later than 2050, our entire investment portfolio will be net zero. Along the way, we will set new interim targets every four years and disclose our progress toward these goals at least annually. In addition, our institutional asset manager, Addenda Capital, set a target to ensure all assets under management will be net zero by 2050 or sooner.

In 2022, we changed our methodology for calculating financed emissions to improve accuracy. Therefore, our 2022 result should not be compared to prior year results. Efforts are underway in 2023 in attempt to restate prior year results.

2022 economic emission intensity of Co-operators listed equity and corporate bond portfolios
57.5 tCO2e per $1 million invested

Results using previous methodology:
2021: 67.0 tCO2e / $1 million invested
2020: 77.7 tCO2e / $1 million invested