Biodiversity

Sampo Group’s guiding policy on climate, biodiversity, and environment is the Sampo Group Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct is reviewed annually and approved by Sampo plc’s Board of Directors. In addition, each Group company has adopted supplementary policies and guidelines for their own purposes.  

Sampo Group follows the development of regulation, metrics, and tools and strives to develop its own investment analysis and insurance operations when it comes to biodiversity. Sampo Group also monitors the progress of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TFND) framework and the company’s abilities to report according to it.

Biodiversity assessment of the investment portfolio

Sampo Group has conducted a high-level assessment using ENCORE* to evaluate its sector-level exposure to nature related impacts and dependencies in its investment portfolio. The assessment is necessary for further evaluation of portfolio companies’ exposure to nature impacts and dependencies, and the future development of Sampo Group’s biodiversity investment framework, including possible engagement activities with the portfolio companies. Going forward, Sampo Group will evaluate its portfolio’s biodiversity impacts and dependencies on a regular basis.

*The ENCORE tool was developed by the ENCORE Partners (Global Canopy, UNEP FI and UNEP-WCMC) and first launched in 2018. Sampo Group used the October 2024 version of ENCORE in the assessment.

Scope and limitations

The assessment includes Sampo Group’s direct equity and fixed income investments, for which a sector code (ISIC) was available. The coverage is approximately 78% of the Group’s total investment portfolio.

ENCORE considers the impacts and dependencies on a sector level, which means that specific information related to the portfolio companies’ operations, geographical locations and mitigation actions is not reflected in the assessment. Additionally, ENCORE currently only covers direct potential impacts and dependencies, meaning that the potential indirect impacts and dependencies related to the sectors’ upstream and downstream value chain are not considered in the assessment.

Results

According to the assessment, approximately 9.3% of Sampo Group’s investments are in sectors that have potentially high or very high impact on at least one pressure point of biodiversity loss. The sectors in Sampo Group’s portfolio with potential high or very high impacts are manufacturing, energy production and supply, construction, transportation and storage, and mining and quarrying. The most material pressure points for these sectors are emissions of toxic soil and water pollutants, emissions of GHG and non-GHG air pollutants, disturbances (e.g., noise, light), and generation and release of solid waste.

According to the assessment, approximately 10.2% of Sampo Group’s investments are in sectors that are potentially highly or very highly dependent on at least one ecosystem service. The sectors in Sampo Group’s portfolio with potential high or very high impacts on biodiversity loss are also potentially highly or very highly dependent on at least one ecosystem service. Additional sectors in Sampo Group’s portfolio, which are potentially highly or very highly dependent on at least one ecosystem service, include real estate activities, accommodation and food service activities, and administrative and support service activities (rental and leasing activities). The most material ecosystem services for these sectors include water supply, water flow regulation, visual amenity services, soil and sediment retention, and flood control.

The graphs illustrate the distribution of Sampo Group’s investments by the sectors’ potential impacts and dependencies on nature, based on the ENCORE methodology. The ratings are based on the sectors’ highest potential impact and dependency, i.e., if a specific sector has, for example, very high impact on at least one pressure point or very high dependency on at least one ecosystem service, the whole sector gets a rating of very high.