UBS 2018 Core Sustainable Investments Up 72% - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - UBS AG (UBS) announced it made significant progress in 2018 toward meeting its ambitious targets in sustainable investing, philanthropy, and business sustainability, while further reducing its environmental footprint. In 2018, UBS's core sustainable investment assets, involving ESG integration as well as a range of sustainability strategies, increased 72% to $313 billion, up from $182 billion in 2017, mainly driven by the integration of ESG factors into UBS Asset Management's investment research process across a significant portion of assets managed within their active capabilities.

The bank directed $1.9 billion of client assets into SDG related impact investments, making further progress to reaching a goal of $5 billion in commitments by end of 2021.

UBS has reduced its carbon-related assets to $2.7 billion, down from $6.6 billion in 2017, while climate-related sustainable investments increased to $87.5 billion from $74 billion in the previous year.

The bank stated that it is making progress toward achieving its goal of 40% of employees volunteering by the end of 2020, with 40% of them skills based.