Pensioenfonds Detailhandel said it will increase its impact portfolio from around €300m to as much as €1.5bn after a strong push from members. The fund said it is considering allocating the capital in areas such as affordable housing and clean energy.
Pensioenfonds Detailhandel, the €30bn Dutch pension fund for the retail sector, has said it is significantly expanding its impact investment allocation after a strong push from its members. The fund said it will increase its allocation from roughly 1% of assets to as much as 5%, raising its impact portfolio from around €300m to as much as €1.5bn.
The decision follows a recent survey in which 41% of participants said they want the fund to allocate more of their pensions toward positive change.
Ernst Hagen, a board member at Pensioenfonds Detailhandel, said the fund is now acting on that mandate. “We promised in advance that we would follow the participants’ choice. Now we’re going to deliver on that,” he said.
Currently, the fund already invests about €300m in areas such as clean energy projects, recycling technologies and circular-economy ventures, as well as microfinance for entrepreneurs in developing countries.
These sit alongside the fund’s growing exposure to green and social bonds, which offer climate or social impact through fixed income markets rather than direct investments.
The board is now assessing where the capital (approximately €1.2bn) should be deployed. “There are many possibilities: affordable housing, clean energy, increased recycling and reuse, and much more. We will make that choice very carefully. This way, we ensure optimal returns for a good pension, but also contribute to positive change,” Hagen said.
The move comes as the Netherlands has set a goal for its institutional investors, including pension funds, to raise their impact-investing allocations toward around 10% of total assets.
Pensioenfonds Detailhandel is among a growing group of European pension funds that are moving beyond exclusions and ESG integration into explicit, measurable impact investing. ABP, the Netherlands’ largest pension fund, managing around €500bn in assets, announced a target of having €30bn in impact investments by 2030. In 2023, the Netherlands Advisory Board on impact investing (NAB) called for institutional investors in the country to commit at least 10% of assets to impact investments by 2025, with 4% specifically targeted at emerging markets by 2030.
The fund’s announcement came on the same day that the EU commission published its proposed revisions for the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, which introduced a clear definition of impact investing and a dedicated product category for funds claiming to deliver real-world outcomes.
