Our Sustainability Programme’s cornerstone is taking care of pension assets – increasing significance in biodiversity, human rights, and a sustainable value chain

“The goal of the new Sustainability Programme is to boost our role as a pioneer in sustainability. As a pension company the cornerstone of our sustainability lies in managing our pension assets. Prominent themes in our newfound programme include biodiversity, human rights and a sustainable value chain,” says Sustainability Director Hanna Kaskela.

“The war in Ukraine has pushed sustainability onto the agenda in a new way. The current world situation highlights the role of governments in sustainability, human rights, addressing corruption and value chain transparency,” Kaskela continues.

Our Sustainability Programme is built on extensive stakeholder consultation, also involving a large group of Varma employees. The programme is based on a materiality assessment, with the help of which we have identified our sustainability focus areas and how our stakeholders’ expectations and operating environment have changed over the years. We recognized themes that have a growing importance to us. We identified themes that have grown in importance.

“Examples of these are biodiversity, circular economy, human rights and promoting work ability. Themes related to the responsible management of our core task, such as securing solvency and ensuring smooth implementation of pension cover, were still among the most important themes raised by our stakeholders,” says Hanna Kaskela.

A secure future for everyone

The guiding principle for our Sustainability Programme is “A secure future for everyone”. Our programme has three focus areas.

Ensuring secure pensions: Taking care of pension assets and paying pensions correctly and in due time are the cornerstone of everything we do. We operate transparently and ethically, while also taking cost-effectiveness and environmental impacts into account.

Investing for change: Responsibility is a core aspect of all our investment decisions. We direct our investments towards tackling the global challenges: mitigating climate change, adapting to the changes it brings, slowing down biodiversity loss and promoting human rights.

For sustainable working life: We help our customers anticipate and manage disability risk. In this way, we promote sustainable working life together. We take care of Varma employees and their competence. We build an inspiring workplace, where everyone can be themselves.

“At the core of our Sustainability Programme is the integration of sustainability more closely into all of Varma’s operations. Sustainability will also be integrated into the remuneration of management and all personnel,” says Hanna Kaskela.

The new Sustainability Programme defines not only the focus areas of our sustainability but also the targets and measures for reaching our ambitions. As examples of the work this year, Varma is renewing its climate policy, building a biodiversity roadmap for investments and revising the human rights due diligence for suppliers and investments. At the same time, we continuously work to improve our sustainability reporting and communications.

We report on the progress of our sustainability work in our Annual and Sustainability Report.

Media contacts:

Hanna Kaskela, Sustainability Director, +358 40 584 5045 or hanna.kaskela(at)varma.fi

Katri Viippola, Senior Vice-President, HR and Communications, +358 400 129 500 or katri.viippola(at)varma.fi