SSF Reporting Recommendations on Portfolio ESG Transparency

SSF issued this report in summer 2021 with the goal of creating more comparability and credibility through recommendations for portfolio ESG transparency for both asset owners and asset managers. The recommendations were a collaboration between SSF’s Asset owner and Asset manager workgroups, which helped incorporate the needs of both parties considering their close links and interdependencies.

With this project, SSF aims to contribute to an agreement on relevant reporting items, both on a qualitative and quantitative level, that allow investors to judge the ESG performance of assets and, where necessary, aggregate this for numerous portfolios. The recommendations include aspects on both the issuing entity level, as well as on the portfolio asset level.

As market participants are not all equally advanced in ESG integration and reporting, we formulate our proposals on two levels: Foundational-level reporting for beginners, and Advanced-level reporting for more experienced investors.

The SSF Reporting Recommendations on Portfolio ESG Transparency are a starting point on the path to more sustainability transparency of Swiss investors. They will have to be tested by different investors and developed further, based on feedback.

We want to thank the workgroup members who actively participated in supplying us the necessary inputs and Sustainserv, who led the project, carried out desk research, guided the discussions and aggregated and condensed the collected information into the final recommendations.

Download the report in English

Download the summary in German

Download the summary in French

View the launch presentation (coming soon)

Selected Figures From the report

Table 1: Foundational-level reporting recommendations