Get started

Sustainability at Grünfin

Grünfin’s mission and values are rooted in sustainability

Sustainability at Grünfin starts with our mission and beliefs. They provide us with the principles of doing business, building our product and contributing to a better planet.

As a society, we’re unable to thrive while the world around us is deteriorating. We believe that investing is the single largest blind spot when it comes to maximizing our positive impact as individuals and a powerful tool to bring about a sustainable future.

Our mission is to make sustainable investing easy so that everyone could invest based on their values. This means removing some of the main barriers to sustainable investing – lack of access and education. Our contribution to a more sustainable future will be conscious, impact-driven investors, enabled by Grünfin’s product.

We have incorporated the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact into our strategies and processes, to create a culture of integrity and set the stage for contributing to a better world.
  • Principle 1. Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights.
  • Principle 2. Businesses should make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.
  • Principle 3. Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining.
  • Principle 4. Businesses should uphold the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labor.
  • Principle 5. Businesses should uphold the effective abolition of child labor.
  • Principle 6. Businesses should uphold the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
  • Principle 7. Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges.
  • Principle 8. Businesses should undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility.
  • Principle 9. Businesses should encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.
  • Principle 10. Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

Grünfin’s Sustainable Investment Principles

Our product is an impact-driven investing platform. We exclusively select investment funds and assets for our client portfolios that comply with the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR Article 8 and Article 9), preferably Article 9 that sets sustainability as an objective.

Sustainable funds or their asset managers usually disclose ESG issues in investment policy statements, develop and disclose an active ownership policy, exercise voting rights, and engage with companies on ESG issues. They ask companies to implement standardized reporting on ESG issues and to align with the code of ethics set by the UN Global Compact.

Grünfin’s seven principles of sustainable investing

  • 1) Our clients' portfolio instruments are limited to exchange-traded and index funds that are traded on European stock exchanges.
    At Grünfin you can choose your sustainability preference by selecting between „Climate Change", „Gender Equality" and „Health" theme as your investment focus. You can choose some or all of them whereas your portfolio will be composed based on your preference selection. We only provide investment funds that comply with the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR Article 8 and Article 9). Our impact focus means that we prefer Article 9 over Article 8 funds, given that Article 9 sets sustainability as an explicit objective.
    However, at times there might be no fit Article 9 funds available for some of our sustainability preference themes.
    Article 9 funds have sustainable investment as their objective, whereas Article 8 funds focus on promoting, among other characteristics, environmental and social characteristics, and follow good governance practices but sustainable investment is not their objective in the meaning of the SFRD regulation. We continue screening the available funds and we will usually prefer Article 9 funds over Article 8 funds. We are hopeful that this will be possible soon as sustainable investing continues growing.
  • 2)
    We have a transparent sustainable investment strategy with the following criteria and points of consideration for assessing and rating the sustainable funds:
      Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation SFDR Article 8 (promotes sustainability and considers ESG risks) and Article 9 (sets impact as objective); Preferably MorningStar Sustainability Rating 4 or 5; Preferably MSCI Sustainability Rating A or higher; tons/MUSD CO2 Green vs. brown revenue; % of women on board; % board independence; Peer and global rank; Specific adherence to the UN Global Compact Principle 2, which requires businesses to make sure they are not complicit in human rights abuses; Lack of severe controversies; Specific exclusion of weapons and tobacco companies; Low-cost, passively managed ETFs or index funds; Fund's liquidity; Currency: EUR.
  • 3) We are independent in providing our service. We screen thousands of funds offered in EUR denomination on the European market service-provider neutrally, i.e. not giving preference to any specific asset manager.
  • 4) We stand for client interest. We do not receive incentives from asset managers nor hide fees in the product. Our pricing aligns with the goals of our clients – we charge a minimum monthly fee and a success fee only when we exceed our set performance target.
  • 5) We help our clients build a values-based portfolio. We tailor our clients’ portfolios based on their preference of a specific sustainability theme (climate change, equality, S&P 500 Planet Friendly and health), time horizon, risk preference, and goals. We ask for these preferences for each individual portfolio.
  • 6) We believe in a low-cost, diversified, and long-term investment strategy
  • 7) We exclusively select funds of asset managers that are signatories of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment and Climate Action +100.
Sustainability Disclosures

In force
Earlier
Reports

Grünfin’s impact

Our mission is rooted in sustainability – making impact–focused, sustainable investing easy and accessible for everyone. Our largest vehicle for impact is our product itself that allows people to invest in sustainable companies.

We have set impact KPIs and metrics to assess our contribution and success:
    Number of customers committed to investing in sustainable assets;Sustainable assets under management;An increase in investor awareness of values-based, impact-focused investing;Select environmental actions enabled by our investor community’s contributions to their portfolios, e.g. trees planted.
In our offices, we promote a reduce-reuse-recycle mentality and make purchase decisions based on durability and longevity.

People and compensation

Grünfin has an open and inclusive work environment in which we value diversity. Our ways of working are founded on mutual respect and open discussion, with difficult topics raised without hesitation. We believe that entrepreneurial spirit is crucial to help us build innovative solutions that solve complex sustainability issues. Our working culture is empowering, flexible, and based on ownership and accountability.

The majority of employees at Grünfin have a fixed salary and are additionally compensated by our stock options program.

The compensation system is set up to counteract excessive, short-term risk-taking and incentivise employees to deliver sustainable performance over the long term. Our stock options vesting schedule spans over several years, maximizing long-term value creation and allowing us to balance the rewards and risk exposure of our all of our stakeholders.

We offer men and women equal pay for equal work and aim for gender balancer in the team.

Our employees’ compensation is tailored to ensure that they are independent in providing their service and acting in the best interests of the client.