Impact investing ASR Dutch Mobility Office Fund

‘Impact investments are investments made with the intention to generate, positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return’ (The Global Impact Investing Network, 2023).

The Fund is not an impact investment vehicle. However, its investments have a positive and measurable environmental impact, alongside a financial return.

The Fund makes a positive environmental impact through enabling CO2 emission reductions for tenant employee mobility to the Fund’s office buildings.

Impact Investing 

Intentionality

The Fund only invests in offices near public transport hubs;

Investment with return expectations

The Fund generates a financial return

Range of return expectations and asset classes

The Fund aims for a riskadjusted market-rate return;

Impact measurement

quantifying the potential CO2 emissions reduction from changed travel behavior of office workers by using a substantiated calculation model / scorecard per asset.

The Fund does this through investing exclusively in offices located on public transport hubs, adding office stock on these locations, and through specific measures aimed at stimulating sustainable mobility for each of the Fund’s office buildings.

The impact, namely the potential CO2 emission reductions, is composed of:

1. Impact generated by the office building location: research by mobility specialist Goudappel shows that offices located on public transport hubs result in employees making fewer car trips, in favor of public transport and bike (see figure on the right), leading to an average of 27% less CO2 emissions.
2. Impact generated by specific measures stimulating sustainable mobility: shared mobility solutions, electrical parking places, (electrical) bike parking places, amenities such as lockers / showers / wayfinding. These can increase the share of employees traveling sustainably to the office.

Next steps

The Fund’s anchor investor, a.s.r., is in the process of qualifying the Fund as an impact investment; for this, it has engaged accountant KPMG to provide “reasonable assurance” on the Fund’s impact investment strategy. Starting from end 2023, the Fund will report to a.s.r. on impact investing. Other participants in the Fund may also perform their own analysis, if they wish to include the Fund in impact investing targets.