Basic differentiation

Dynamic vs. static Sustainability

There are two fundamentally different philosophies, which lead to the decision to develop and offer sustainability funds. On the one hand there is the basic request to support respectively to preserve the sustainability. On the other hand there is the claim to set indications in order to promote respectively to further spread the sustainability. Both approaches represent approaches, which can be called sustainable.

The basic aim to support respectively to preserve existing sustainability is characterised in an extreme form of the sustainability analysis. This is realized with the analysis philosophy of the strict exclusion criteria. This approach guarantees that sectors, which harm on principle the sustainability (e.g. car- or flight industry) do not flow into sustainable products. Applying this approach eliminates the chance to let arise sustainability efforts in these sectors. In contrast stands the basic aim to promote sustainability in each sector. With this approach, incentives are created in each industry for introducing and/or for observing sustainability efforts. This basic aim finds its expression in the application of minimal exclusion criteria and the branch leader approach.

The flight industry as example for the explanation of the two different basic approaches: Different funds exclude the flight industry (application of strict exclusion criteria). Thus they eliminate each hope for the airlines to ever be able to be called sustainable. In addition the probability shrinks that in the flight industry active enterprises will ever strive to convert aspects of sustainability since they are excluded from the sustainability observations in principle and thus never can be designated sustainable. In opposition, if this sector is not a priori excluded, but evaluated with the branch leader approach, incentives are also created for the airlines for making efforts toward sustainability which could lead to a reduction of the harmful aspects of the flight industry.

The second basic approach carries out the larger contribution for the increase of sustainability consciousness. But restrictions would have to be taken into account concerning the designation sustainability in this approach, since it partly invests in enterprises which wouldn’t be designated as sustainable in a strict evaluation (critical sectors).

On the other side stands the first, strict basic approach, in which the designation as suatainable applies to all enterprises, which though only makes a contribution for the preservation of already existing sustainability measures and doesn’t contribute to the promotion of further measures.

The difficulty consists in the fact, that one cannot clearly determine, which approach is “more sustainable”. With both approaches the designation is fair, even if it has different effects on the environment.

The sustainability efforts of the fund emitters can be differentiated as follows:

Distinction of the sustainability efforts

                   Graph 4: Distinction of the sustainability efforts