The CO2 emissions of your investments

To find out what the greenhouse gas emissions of companies are, we work together with our data supplier, ISS Oekom. They conduct research into the emissions per company. Those emissions are difficult to determine. There are direct emissions, caused by own sources, but also indirect emissions caused by, for example, purchased energy. 

ISS Oekom makes a calculation in which the total CO2 emissions of a company are expressed as the sum of the so-called ‘Scope 1’ (direct) emissions and ‘Scope 2’ (indirect) emissions. 

In your report, you will see the following infographic with different figures:

What exactly does it say here? 

For your portfolio, the tCO2e (see what exactly CO2 is ) of all companies is added up and settled in order to be compared with the benchmark. In the attached example you can see: 

1. The weighted average CO2e emission of the equity portion of the portfolio (or the asset class ‘equities’). 
2. The tCO2e of the agreed benchmark. 

The difference in emissions between the portfolio and the benchmark in this example is 63. The lower the score stays below the benchmark, the better.

We will convert the 162 tCO2e in the example above into the non-emitted CO2 in terms of the number of return flights Amsterdam - New York. We want to use this comparison to give you more insight. The 162 tCO2e equals 37 return flights. 

We make that calculation with the help of the independent website CO2 Emission Factors.

We often talk about CO2, but what exactly is it? CO2 (carbon dioxide) is a greenhouse gas naturally present in the Earth’s atmosphere. Like other greenhouse gases, CO2 ensures that the heat from the sun is retained. CO2 emissions occur through the combustion of fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and natural gas. Animals and humans also emit CO2.

If CO2 emissions are too high, the Earth heats up faster. Some of the CO2 emissions are absorbed by trees, plants and plankton in the sea. These organisms convert CO2 into oxygen (O2). This absorption is currently not enough to combat global warming.

Incidentally, CO2 is not the only greenhouse gas that has a harmful effect. Since the impact of different greenhouse gases varies, all emissions are converted into CO2 equivalents per year. This is expressed in tCO2e.