Stockholm (NordSIP) – PensionDanmark, Denmark’s largest private pension fund, took an important step towards normalising sustainability disclosures and increasing transparency by including important ESG information in its annual report, as well as in its auditor’s report.
“As a new initiative, we are including a list of ESG ratios in our annual report, calculated according to the guidelines published by FSR – Danish Auditors, Nasdaq and the Danish Finance Society in June 2019,” Torben Möger Pedersen, CEO of PensionDanmark, explains in his Letter from the CEO. “In order to lend credence to these ESG ratios, we are also, as the first pension provider in Denmark, including them in our independent auditor’s report.”
According to the report, the portfolio of companies held by PensionDanmark was responsible for a total of 731 thousand tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2019, down from 736 thousand tonnes in 2018 and 813 thousand tonnes in 2017. The company ability to offset CO2 emissions through renewable energy investments also made significant contributions to environmental conservation efforts, according to the report. “Through our investments in renewable energy infrastructure producing an annual 3,665 GWh of green power, we avoided emissions of between 2.3 million tonnes and just below 3.5 million tonnes of CO2 relative to power based on fossil fuels, depending on the calculation method applied.”
On the social front, PensionDanmark increased for the fourth time in a row the number of full-time staff, decreased the gender pay-gap and staff turnover. Diversity also improved according to the report. “At year-end 2019, 45.2% of PensionDanmark’s managers were women. In 2015, the corresponding share was 30.3%. The proportion of female managers (45.2%) is higher than the proportion of women in the organisation as such (44.0%).”
However, PensionDanmark marginally increased the salary gap. In 2019, the CEO’s salary was 8.6 times that of the average employee, an increase from 8.5 the year before and in line with the five-year average. As a reference, the outgoing CEO of ExxonMobil, Darren Woods, made over 180 times more than the average employee. At BP, CEO Bob Dudley made over 140 times more than his average employee.
Image courtesy of PensionDanmark
