Active ownership

As an investors, we have global influence over a large number of companies. We leverage this influence to steer sectors/companies with significant room for improvement in the right direction.

Voting in the 2026 AGM season

Our active ownership in action. Explore some of our most recent voting activities.

Active Ownership

As an active owner, PGGM urges companies to implement decarbonization strategies appropriate to their businesses and aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement. We also focus on encouraging climate solutions that accelerate society's transition and will benefit their long term performance.

Our themes

Climate change

Climate change

Health

As an investor working for pension funds with strong ties to the healthcare sector, PGGM wants to play its part in helping people live healthy, prosperous lives. We therefore invest in healthcare solutions but also engage with companies to address subjects such as prevention and good access to affordable healthcare.

Health

Human rights

PGGM seeks to contribute to a society in which economic development is not at the expense of human rights. In taking our responsibility to respect human rights, we adopt standards such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). We ask companies to not only identify salient human rights risks in their business and supply chains but also ensure that a robust policy and implementation plan are in place to safeguard human rights.

Human rights

Nature and biodiversity

As responsible investor, PGGM calls upon companies to implement targets and strategies to minimize their contribution to nature and biodiversity loss. The strategies should be appropriate to their businesses and aligned with the goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Nature and biodiversity

On the basis of the following ‘‘active ownership’ activities, PGGM fulfils the rights and responsibilities associated with being a shareholder in listed companies:

Voting

Voting rights are one of the most important ways to influence the course of a business. We therefore vote on the basis of our own judgement at meetings of shareholders. For each company, PGGM publishes its voting record and an explanation.

Download our voting guidelines here.

Engagement

As a pension investor we see it as our responsibility to engage with market parties and companies about their policies and activities. In this way, we attempt to reduce ESG-related risks and to stimulate companies to grow a positive footprint on society.

For our largest client PFZW in 2022, we started a two-year engagement program for the fossil fuel sector with the purpose of only remaining invested in companies that are meaningfully contributing to the goal of the Paris Agreement. This concluded at the end of 2023. We are now actively engaging companies in the Materials, Industrials, Utilities, and Food sectors. For more information about our engagement and voting activities in 2023, on behalf of PFZW, read PFZW’s Stewardship Report.

Sector Guides

We have released the first in a series of sector-specific guides that shape our engagement with companies. These guides outline our expectations for industries where these sustainability themes are most relevant. The initial guides cover oil & gas, aviation, food, and healthcare sectors.

Additional sector guides will be released later this year.

Legal proceedings

When necessary, we institute legal proceedings against companies on behalf of our clients as shareholder, to recover any investment losses and enforce good corporate conduct. Read more about current proceedings in our Integrated Annual Report.