Sustainability is becoming a decisive criterion in the selection of investments. Given that standards have not yet been established, the danger of greenwashing is great. "Investments in renewable energies clearly fall into the highest level of sustainability", says Markus W. Voigt, CEO of aream Group. "This must be regularly documented and kept transparent, which is why we have just strengthened our team in this area."

Reiner Brüling has been responsible for investment controlling at aream Group since October 1st, 2021. "It is crucial that investments are not only evaluated at the time of creation or purchase, but over their entire lifetime", says Brüling. This ensures for investors that regulatory and technical changes are always included in the valuation of investments in an up-to-date manner. "Only such comprehensive transparency allows large institutional investors in particular to also enforce their investment and sustainability strategies", says Brüling.

"Investor demands in this area have risen sharply in recent years", says Voigt. "On top of that, regulators are currently paying more attention to compliance, and will continue to do so in the future." Greenwashing, in which products are labeled as sustainable without really being able to document this in depth, should thus be prevented. "Investments in renewable energies have the great advantage of being green in any case and contributing significantly to CO2 avoidance, for example", says Voigt. "Other asset classes, such as equities, have not yet reached generally binding standards in regulation."

"The EU is working flat out to advance its taxonomy and the SFDR initiative", says Brüling. "As a result, the demands on asset managers are increasing enormously." Asset sustainability must be assessed not only in due diligence at the time of purchase or acquisition, but over the entire lifetime or investment period. Ongoing controlling and continuous reporting are crucial. "In addition to key risk indicators, this requires further reporting on ESG-relevant issues and their impact on the profitability of the assets", says Brüling. 

Reiner Brüling comes from the SIGNA group of companies, where as Senior Financial Manager he was responsible for the operational controlling of a business unit and further developed controlling instruments and processes. He previously worked at the aream Group from 2016 to 2018 and knows the company and its products well.