About

ASN Bank is a Dutch sustainable bank with a clear mission: to promote environmental and social progress through every aspect of its business. Since its founding, ASN Bank has continued to develop the way it ensures that the money it manages contributes to a fairer, greener future.

Challenge

After several years of conducting a biodiversity footprint of their portfolio with the support of PRé, ASN Bank sought a comprehensive ecosystem dependency assessment to:

1. Identify material ecosystem services critical to their portfolios.
2. Conduct detailed dependency analyses for key ecosystem services linked to select asset classes and funds.
3. Support strategic decision-making, inform investment steering, and enhance engagement with portfolio companies aimed at reducing biodiversity loss and dependency.

Through this project, ASN Bank wanted to deepen its understanding of how its portfolio interacts with nature. To assess the negative pressures their investments exert and find potential positive contributions.

Solution

PRé designed a tailored Ecosystem services (ES) dependency and Risk Assessment approach that met ASN’s specific needs and is in line with the Partnership for Biodiversity Accounting Financials (PBAF) Standard. To do this, we built on our past experience and methodological development in ES dependency assessment.

1. Portfolio-wide ecosystem service dependency analysis: Using the ENCORE (Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks and Exposure) database, a globally recognized tool referenced by TNFD, SBTN and natural capital accounting guidelines, we assessed ASN Bank’s and ASN Impact Investor’s portfolios to identify the most material ecosystem services their loans and investments depend on.
2. Deep-dive dependency analysis: We conducted an in-depth dependency assessment for one material sector for ASN Bank, zooming in on value chain-specific dependencies and potential opportunities for mitigation or positive impact in line with PBAF and TNFD recommendations. For ASN Impact Investors, we expanded the analysis across its five funds, mapping the most material dependencies and developing dependency profiles for the ten companies most exposed to ecosystem services in each fund.
3. Capacity-building: Throughout the project, ASN was actively engaged at key decision points concerning scope, methodology, and data choices, ensuring full transparency and enabling them to confidently interpret results for effective decision-making. In addition, we conducted a meeting with relevant stakeholders guiding them on the interpretation and practical application of the results.

Benefits

This comprehensive approach delivered critical insights and actionable outcomes for ASN:

• Enhanced understanding of portfolio exposure to specific ecosystem services, guiding focused mitigation and investment strategies.
• Clear identification of key sectors and companies to prioritize stakeholder engagement, raise awareness of ecosystem dependencies and encourage mitigation actions.
• Inform reporting aligned with emerging standards and regulations, such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), helping ASN meet evolving ESG disclosure requirements.

The project has given us valuable insights into ASN’s ecosystem services dependencies related to our whole portfolio, including an in-depth analysis of our most material assets and investment portfolio. These insights will help us in making further steps within the nature and biodiversity domain, specifically within our impact- and ESG risk mitigation strategy. I am, after many years of working with PRé, still impressed by the technical expertise related to nature and biodiversity topics. This makes working together always an interesting and overall great experience. I am once again very pleased with the quality of their work and I am looking forward to our next project together!

Bas Smeets, Nature Lead at ASN Bank