Sustainability at UBS

UBS has been a frontrunner in sustainability for over three decades, and our colleagues and clients are more than familiar with the topic. Together, we create an ecosystem that is giving our world a strong push towards a brighter future. Here’s how we’re still standing out from the crowd in creating better outcomes for today and future generations, as sustainable investing goes mainstream. 

Suni: The emergence of sustainability into the mainstream presents significant implications and opportunities for our firm and our clients. UBS has been at the forefront in sustainable finance for many years and making it a core part of our purpose speaks to the bold ambitions we have for the future. We want to be the financial provider of choice for clients who wish to mobilize capital towards the achievement of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the orderly transition to a low-carbon economy. As a leading financial institution, UBS also has a critical role to play in helping shape the industry and drive change. To help us do so, and to direct capital to where it is needed most, we are focusing on three key areas: planet, people and partnerships. In concrete terms, this means taking action on climate and supporting the transition to a net zero world, working to address wealth inequality through our philanthropy and community impact efforts, which are centered on health and education, and working in partnership with our clients, communities and other standard setters to achieve impact on a truly global scale.

Suni: Sustainable finance has evolved rapidly over the past five years as investors, regulators and other market participants have increased their focus on delivering sustainable outcomes. At the same time, there has been a drive for greater global convergence around definitions, terminology and standards to drive transparency and access to consistent data. The opportunities are almost limitless. By creating the Group Sustainable and Impact organization our goal is to position UBS to respond most effectively in this highly dynamic environment. Our focused team, which brings together our leading subject matter experts and thought leaders from across the firm, acts as a center of excellence, responsible for driving the implementation of our sustainability strategy and related initiatives, including our transition to net zero. It also plays a critical role in helping UBS’s businesses around the world to leverage the best of our sustainability and impact capabilities and insights, and supports them in engaging our entire ecosystem on behalf of clients.

Suni: When we published our Net Zero and Beyond statement last year we outlined some clear ambitions. For instance, as a leading universal bank in Switzerland, we want to ensure we’re supporting the transition in our home market. In 2021 we became the first Swiss real estate platform to offer sustainable mortgages for investment properties in Switzerland. Another critical area we highlighted was our work around inclusive growth and a sharpened focus of our client and corporate philanthropy activities. Last year, UBS Optimus Foundation raised USD 161 million in donations and its activities improved the well-being of 4.6 million people. Of course, making sure that the full breadth of our sustainability ambition can be transparently tracked and measured is crucial too. That’s why our Annual Sustainability Report clearly sets out our goals, our targets, and most importantly, our progress against them.

Michael: Our focus on climate is not new for UBS, but it’s a highly complex and multi-year effort to become a net zero bank. To map out our journey, including interim targets and key milestones along the way, we published our Net Zero and Beyond statement in 2021, marking our commitment to achieve net zero across all our operations by 2050 – and to support our clients on their journey, too. One of the first milestones on that path was the issuance of our inaugural green bond in the summer of 2021, a truly cross-firm effort which directly addressed growing investor demand.

Our focus on climate is not new for UBS, but it’s a highly complex and multi-year effort to become a net zero bank.

The next step will be to present our climate roadmap to shareholders at the UBS AGM in April. And, as you would expect, our teams are continuing to move full steam ahead on delivering on our net zero implementation plans.

Suni: We have quite an ambitious agenda for 2022 and beyond. Delivering on Net Zero and continuing to expand the firm’s sustainability and impact offering will certainly remain at the forefront of our priorities. This includes building on the commitments we made in 2021, such as the Net Zero Banking Alliance and Asset Managers initiative, while also contributing to the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, and the G7 Impact Taskforce.

This will also be an important year for the newly established UBS Sustainability and Impact Institute, which will be responsible for driving the best of UBS’s thought leadership in this space. As part of this effort, we will also be establishing our new Forum to bring together our subject matter experts with other thought leaders, standard setters and external partners to promote debate and surface innovative ideas and solutions to advance the sustainability agenda at UBS and beyond.

Michael: In our home market, 2022 is also likely to be a pivotal year for the Swiss financial markets as sustainability self-regulation comes to the fore. As a UBS representative, both of the Swiss Banking Association and Swiss Sustainable Finance, we are helping to drive the transition in Switzerland by contributing to, and shaping, those frameworks. Meanwhile, as we see a growing focus on the importance of the ‘S’ in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) in markets around the world, we too will be working to expand the role of diversity, equity and inclusion as a key driver of inclusive growth.

Suni: Global understanding and consensus around the scale of the sustainability challenge continued to grow in 2021 and never before has the mobilization of capital had more impact. However, transitioning the world to a lower carbon economy requires some USD 3.5 trillion of investment per year for the next decade.

By working together, we can achieve a real impact on a global scale.

We believe that UBS has an important role to play in addressing this funding gap by helping to mobilize capital in all its forms and this is a key priority for our firm. As one of the largest financial institutions in the world, we are strongly placed to partner with governments, asset owners, participants in the public and private markets, as well as work with wealthy individuals to help them scale their philanthropic activities in the social impact space. By working together, we can achieve a real impact on a global scale.