SDGs as a compass for investors (roundtable ‘10 years of SDGs’ part 1)

January 12, 2026

_{This report was originally written in Dutch. This is an English translation.}

The first part of the roundtable report '10 years of SDGs' focuses on the question of how the Sustainable Development Goals have influenced investors' thinking and actions. What have the SDGs achieved as a framework for sustainable investment and how do they support the balance between impact, risk and return?

By Daphne Frik

This is part 1 of the report. Part 2 will be published on Wednesday 14 January and part 3 on Monday 19 January.

To what extent have the SDGs helped investors define sustainability and align their investments accordingly? Have they stimulated the growth of sustainable investment capital?

Paul Ruijs: ‘We have certainly embraced the SDGs as a blueprint for sustainable investing. The goals make sustainable development very specific thanks to the many targets and indicators, which allow us to link companies’ activities to these goals. It is a universal blueprint that all countries have endorsed. Prior to the SDGs, everyone had their own definition of sustainability. This framework prevents cherry-picking and forces an integrated approach. We have seen a huge increase in SDG investments, now amounting to around 45 billion euros, approximately 25% of our assets under management. But the market is now in a more difficult phase of the hype cycle, with less momentum and more focus on performance. A balanced approach to impact, risk and return can help with this.’

Rob van Tulder: ‘The transition from the Millennium Development Goals to the SDGs has been crucial: from a government-driven agenda to one in which the private sector was explicitly involved. The dashboard approach is incredibly important. We’ve had the hype, now the real work begins: implementation. There is still a tremendous amount of energy around this agenda worldwide. The SDGs are and will remain leading.’

Sven van den Beld: ‘From a supervisory perspective, we also see that the SDGs have created a common framework that helps many pension funds to embed sustainability structurally in their policies. The challenge now lies in implementation: not just policy on paper, but also demonstrable management of material impact and risk control. That requires clear indicators and transparency.’

Raquel Criado Larrea: ‘At the same time, we must continue to look at ourselves critically: I find that the SDGs often indicate why we should do something, but less how we should do it. The framework helps us to understand systemic risks, but translating this into concrete investments and indicators remains challenging. We often refer to them, but it remains difficult to quantify how much capital is actually being invested thanks to the SDGs.’

Dirk Schoenmaker: 'I think two things are needed. The strength of the SDGs is their holistic nature: they counter greenwashing and cherry-picking. But there is also a danger: many indicators are social or economic, which means that environmental factors are overlooked. We need to weigh the S and the E separately and give them equal weight. Otherwise, we appear to be making progress, while the environment is deteriorating.’

Van Tulder: ‘That's why the dashboard approach is so important. Everyone creates an index, a kind of unweighted average, and that's where the problem lies. We need to learn to weigh and contextualise. The agenda has not become irrelevant; on the contrary, now is the time to deepen it.’

How have the SDGs helped investors find a balance between risk, return and sustainability?

Ruijs: ‘The SDGs offer a lens through which to integrate an impact dimension into the investment process. This makes it possible to view risk, return and impact in conjunction with each other. This 3D approach to impact, risk and return is necessary to truly achieve scale and thus make a meaningful contribution towards 2030.’

Claudia Kruse: ‘Investors need consistent and reliable information. That is why we have set up the SDI Asset Owner Platform together with PGGM, BCI and AustralianSuper to establish a data-driven, global standard for SDG investing. This has now been taken over by NetPurpose. This SDG information, by investors and for investors, enables investors to make more informed choices: which investments actually contribute and which do not? This way, the balance between risk, return and sustainability is automatically incorporated into the investment process.’

Van den Beld: ‘For us, that balance is essential. Risk and return are easily quantifiable, impact much less so. That is why we ask institutions to be clear about their assumptions and methodologies. It is also important to distinguish between dual materiality: on the one hand, managing external risks and, on the other, achieving real impact. These are two different perspectives that both deserve attention.’

Anna Pot: ‘But perhaps we should take a step back. The question was whether this 3D approach has helped investors. But the fact that we are even talking about 3D investing in a polarised and turbulent world says a lot. The SDGs are still our North Star: a shared compass that we have established with all UN member states, however different we may be. It is our action agenda. Thanks to these agreements, pension fund managers can say: we invest for a sustainable world, because otherwise we have no future. From my current role, I see that every member state is accountable for this, however difficult it may sometimes be. That is unique: it keeps us on track, despite all the geopolitical tensions. The SDGs provide direction and a language for cooperation between governments, investors and businesses. They make it clear why we are doing this. And perhaps even more importantly, the agenda has unleashed an incredible amount of creativity. Universities, knowledge institutions, businesses, NGOs, everyone is working, in their own way, towards the same North Star. Of course, there are sometimes less well-thought-out initiatives and marketing stories, but that is part of a broad social process. What matters is that there is a common framework.’