SUSTAINABILITY WATCH NOW
A good future for the environment and human rights
Allianz’ sustainability approach is embedded across the group and linked to long-term value creation, which reflects the same logic: climate strategy must strengthen the business, not sit apart from it – something Günther emphasises while sharing that it’ s clear what we need to do and how this work can be done.
Pressure from the outside As an environmentalist from outside the finance faction, Heffa brought a different but complementary perspective, arguing that change in finance has rarely happened in a vacuum. Instead, she lays out how it has often been driven by civil society scrutiny, reputational pressure and the presence of visible first movers.
“ I think a lot about how we can motivate financial institutions to change their behaviour,” she says.“ I’ ve come to the conclusion that one very important factor is civil society pressure. As much as I like to think that the financial institutions adopting policies back in 2015 were picking up – the Paris Agreement – there was huge societal pressure on financial institutions to finally connect the dots between their financial provinces and the way they were investing. Reputational risk and civil society pressure is often at the
100 September 2026