The core role of the Responsible Investment Office is to frame ESG governance for DWS and to ensure transparency for all stakeholder groups regarding DWS’s ESG activities.
The Responsible Investment Office delivers ESG governance through a set of ESG principles and guidelines, such as its Responsible Investment Framework statement. These guidelines facilitate ESG integration into our investment processes and additionally secure ESG integration into new product approval and reputational risk processes. One example is our global policy concerning Controversial Conventional Weapons (CCW). Going forward we will be examining a number of other controversial sectors.
The transparency efforts comprise of our mandatory ESG reporting requirements, for example, DWS’s Sustainability Report as well as Deutsche Bank’s Non-Financial-Report and the PRI’s annual assessment. In addition, we supply information about our ESG activities to a variety of stakeholder groups. This is achieved through active participation in industry initiatives, market surveys, RfPs and our website. The Responsible Investment Office also coordinates regulatory projects which affect DWS’s investment activities (such as Disclosure Regulation or Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures) and participates in public policy engagements
Besides providing our internal governance structure and ensuring transparency, the Responsible Investment Office acts as coordinator for the multitude of projects and requests concerning ESG at DWS and that are directed towards the Responsible Investments’ team.
