Birta Pension Fund joins the Klappir Digital Ecosystem

Ólafur Sigurðsson, Birta's CEO, says that the collaboration with Klappir is part of a journey that began two years ago when the fund set an environmental policy and published an annual report in accordance with international sustainability standards (GRI).

The Icelandic Government has already announced its plans to implement two EU regulations that will make greater demands on pension funds in this area. On the one hand, it is the EU Taxanomy Regulations, which are intended to harmonize the classification of economic activities according to whether they are environmentally sustainable or not. It will harmonize our understanding of the concept of environmentally sustainable business and be useful in communicating with our business partners. On the other hand, it is the EU Disclosure Regulation that makes a greater demand for transparency and disclosure of information on the basis of the above classification system.

"Implementing these regulations is a challenge for us, as we manage a large portfolio. This information dissemination must be efficient and reliable, which is why we are starting a collaboration with Klappir ", says Ólafur.

Klappir's software will keep track of measurements of greenhouse gas emissions from companies and disseminate information on their performance into a special interface to which Birta Pension Fund will have access and therefore can rate its investment portfolio.

"When we inform our stakeholders about environmental issues, it is very important that the information is considered standard and reliable," says Ólafur. "We have established an environmental policy that influences investment and risk policy and have had the environmental management system certified. We will follow this and stick to our policy. The software will be useful to us and we hope that the collaboration will be successful in the future.

"It is a great pleasure to have Birta Pension Fund in Klappir's rapidly growing group of customers. Klappir's Sustainability Platform is well suited for monitoring the ESG portfolio's performance. Birta Pension Fund joining Klappir and thus becoming an active participant in the Klappir digital ecosystem is very important for Klappir and the whole community. Climate change is a huge challenge for Iceland and the world - strong information technology infrastructure, reliable databases and efficient provision of information to stakeholders are one of the prerequisites for our joint success in the fight against global warming. At Klappir, we are pleased to see the joint success of our customers, who have now achieved a 16% overall reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. We are therefore extremely pleased to have Birta Pension Fund amongst our clients", says Jón Ágúst Þorsteinsson, CEO of Klappir.

Both Birta and Klappir place great emphasis on working on the basis of the United Nations Global Goal no. 17 (collaboration on goals) because with close collaboration of all, we as a society achieve much more results than if we are working individually. Iceland needs to believe that we stand together in working our way through the great challenges that await us in climate change.

With increased co-operation between companies in Iceland, it is our hope that we will be able to live up to the promises that Iceland made with the Paris Agreement to reduce emissions by 55% in the period 2021-2030.

Klappir's digital ecosystem is suitable for all companies and today connects more than 400 parties in Iceland; companies, municipalities, government agencies, ministries, municipalities and ports.

Other pensions fonds in Iceland using Klappir for purpose of green investing are:

• The Pension Fund for State Employees in Iceland (LSR)
  
• LV - the Pension Fund of Commerce
  
• Almenni Pension Fund
  
• Brú - Pension Fund for the Employees of Municipalities (IS)