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

In such a situation, transparency becomes a key principle for those who want to involve their investors and demonstrate that their actions are actually aimed at sustainability and not just greenwashing.

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

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

Crucially, the inclusion of the SFDR, which places new disclosure requirements on funds, has radically changed the approach of investment funds to sustainability. The EU's aim through the SFDR is that those affected by new sustainability disclosure requirements will have to publish on their websites 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 can also be Currency in transparency of the management process and transparency towards investors:

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

Sustainable investors use different management strategies to promote their culture of sustainability and transparency:
The Exclusion Approach: Refrain from investing in industries and companies that operate in certain fields considered 'unsustainable' and harmful to the environment or the community.
TheRegulatory Approach: Take special account of international sustainability and ESG norms and regulations.
TheEngagement: Involve through its voting policy and direct dialogue its holdings in ESG issues.
Thematic approach: Having an investment strategy strongly oriented towards sustainable investment themes such as: green bonds, renewable sources, CO2 reduction, circular economy, protection of marine resources and biodiversity.
Best practice: Have an investment strategy based on selecting issuers with the highest ESG ratings assessed by industry, sector or region 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 (environment, 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 find 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.