Developing a culture of sustainability and the importance of ESG factors within companies is a key step, and it is good to distinguish those who are truly committed to the development of a more sustainable future from those who exploit the situation as if it were a "trend" in order to make a profit from it, but then do nothing about it.

In such a situation, transparency therefore becomes a pivotal principle for those who want to make their investors participate and demonstrate how their actions are actually aimed at sustainability and not just greenwashing.

Greenwashing refers to those communication strategies that companies may adopt that are aimed at building a positive image of their company from an environmental and sustainability perspective, when, in reality, their activities are anything but green or sustainable.

The primary goal that mutual funds can set for themselves with regard to transparency is to help investors make their choices in an informed manner, give them a chance to actively participate in the process of sustainable development, whether through a contribution to the environment, social welfare or through the governance policies of Society.

Crucially, the inclusion of the SFDR legislation, which places new disclosure obligations on funds, has fundamentally changed the approach of investment funds to sustainability. The goal the EU wants to achieve through the SFDR is to ensure that those affected by the new sustainability disclosure requirements will have to publish on their sites information about the policies they have adopted to integrate sustainability risks and any impacts these might have on the performance of financial products.

Transparency for investment funds also can be Currency in transparency of the management process and transparency to investors:

The first may consist of having a system for assessing and monitoring the ESG performance of one's holdings by communicating their results and trends, and appointing an advisory board that can decide directly on ESG issues.
The second, on the other hand, consists of data that one makes available to investors such as a detailed list of the holdings that are part of Portfolio, voluntary membership in the PRI, or other specialized institutions and foundations (Eurosif, GIIN, GRI), or having external certifications that can be directly verified by investors or that ensure a certain level of transparency and sustainability(labels).

Sustainable investors use several management strategies to promote their culture of sustainability and transparency:
The Exclusionary Approach: Refrain from investing in industries and companies that operate in certain fields considered "unsustainable" and harmful to the environment or community.
The Regulatory Approach: Taking special consideration of international sustainability and ESG regulations and standards.
The Engagement: Involve through its voting policy and direct dialogue its holdings in ESG issues.
Thematic Approach: Having an investment strategy strongly oriented toward a sustainable investment theme such as: green bonds, renewables, CO2 reduction, circular economy, protection of marine resources and biodiversity.
Best Practices: Having an investment strategy based on selecting issuers with the highest ESG ratings assessed by industry, sector or region so as to achieve a high quality of Portfolio.
Impact investing: Having an investment strategy that aims to have policies that have a real impact and are not necessarily the most profitable.
ESG integration: Having an explicit strategy with selection criteria that integrate all ESG dimensions (environmental, social, governance).

We use 46 criteria to assess the position of funds in terms of transparency, which we analyze at both the parent, Society management and fund levels.

In this area, it is mainly the assessment ofESG Risk that influences the scores as the categories that feed into ESG Impact and Screening poorly match the concept of Transparency.

Transparency to investors carries the greatest weight in our assessments, given the absence of a market standard and the objective difficulties for investors to re-perceive useful information.

Transparency to Society civil, public commitments to impact reduction, and collaborations with relevant Foundations and International Organizations complete the analysis(UNPRI, Global Compact, UNPRB)

The issue of transparency to investors is central to European policy, and disclosure requirements are watched very closely by regulators. In particular, combating greenwashing is one of the pillars of supervision. The regulations issued aim to provide investor clients, including private investors, with sufficient information for the purpose of making informed investment choices that also include sustainability considerations.

At the industry level, good practices of sharing sustainability information through the exchange of technical files (EETs) that encapsulate all the information required by the Standard are encouraged. While optional, this institutional transparency is a valuable source of information for us, and those who refuse to process this file or share it are penalized in our evaluation system.

Because transparency is strongly framed by the Act, there are no mandatory adverse impact indicators for sustainable funds outside of the legislation itself.