Ethos Foundation

Ethos, Swiss Foundation for Sustainable Development, was created in 1997 by two Geneva-based pension funds and is currently composed of more than 80 institutional investors. Its purpose is to promote the consideration of sustainable development principles and corporate governance best practice in investment activities, in accordance with the principles defined in its Charter.

The Foundation owns the company Ethos Services, which carries out all investment and consultancy activities. In particular, it offers

- fund management taking into account sustainable development criteria. The different funds and mandates of Ethos currently represent around USD 2 billion under management.

- exercise of shareholder voting rights. To this effect, Ethos offers a comprehensive service of proxy voting analyses with voting recommendations as well as administrative support for the execution of the vote.

- constructive engagement with listed companies. Several years ago, Ethos together with Swiss pension funds founded the Ethos Engagement Pool. In the name of the Pool, Ethos engages in dialogue with the most important Swiss listed companies on topics of general interest to investors such as corporate governance and sustainable development.

- Since several years, a number of pension funds have joined together and mandated Ethos to engage in dialogue with the most important Swiss listed companies on topics of general interest to investors such as corporate governance and sustainable development.

Ethos is also a member of various international institutional investor groups that are actively involved in dialogue with companies, such as the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), Pharma Shareowners Group (PSG) and Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

Moreover, the Ethos Foundation is the 2009 recipient of the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) Award. The award is considered the highest distinction in the field of corporate governance and is given annually for exceptional achievement in that connection. For the Awards Committee, Ethos has helped bring about significant improvements in corporate governance and has had a major positive impact in its region.