Prosperous and Healthy People

How to become and stay happy and healthy?

We strongly believe that our society can only thrive if its members are physically and mentally healthy. Well-functioning healthcare systems and effective remedies to diseases are a clear prerequisite, but attaining all-round wellbeing also requires attention to healthy lifestyles and personal care. Not least, real prosperity is achieved when our very human inclination for arts and culture is fulfilled and finds opportunities for expression.

A just and inclusive society can only be achieved if we also pay attention and value individual wellbeing. With Prosperous and Healthy People we therefore focus on the health and wellbeing of individuals. Physical and mental wellbeing starts with access to a well-functioning and affordable healthcare system and health-related solutions but can be further reinforced by improving hygienic standards and ensuring healthy nutrition. In addition, when people adopt an active lifestyle, through physical exercise and devoting time and energy to producing and enjoying arts and culture, both physical and mental health are positively impacted for individuals, with substantial benefits for society as a whole.

Transition to a society of prosperous and healthy people

Our investment focus for this theme is on companies that contribute to progress and distribution of products and services in the three main areas described above. The companies and solutions we invest in can be categorised as follows:

Geographical accessibility, availability and affordability of healthcare remains a problem, particularly in developing countries. Through our investments we aim to improve this, and therefore consider the following aspects when investing in healthcare-related companies:

Accessibility is a prerequisite for a high-quality and efficient healthcare solutions. Accessibility can be defined both in terms of ease of physical (or online) access, time, costs, and the availability of qualified staff.
Availability focuses on the availability of both medical staff and the right technology to meet client needs.
Affordability relates to the costs of healthcare solutions, both from a societal perspective and the perspective of the individual client. We invest in a more efficient, affordable, and accessible healthcare solutions.

We invest in companies that promote an active lifestyle, leisure activities that fit our views on sustainability, or promote a healthy diet. Investable companies range from music instrument makers and publishers to producers of sports apparel. We assess the impact on a case by case basis, and in addition companies must meet our minimum standards.

Prevention and proper screenings can help treat potential health problems before they develop or worsen. Disease prevention focuses on reducing or eliminating risks that might increase the chances that an individual or group will incur disease, disability, or premature death. We screen companies’ product offer to ensure they can contribute to prevention through increased hygiene and sanitation standards.

Quality healthcare, active lifestyle, and prevention

To identify and select companies that contribute to this theme, we have established a set of core impact objectives. We individually look at each company and use both qualitative information and quantitative data to screen companies and monitor alignment with our theme specific impact objectives and SDGs.

We use impact indicators based on sources of revenue data to track companies’ contribution towards these objectives. We further substantiate our analysis by looking at companies’ product offering and relevant sustainability indicators as well as other qualitative evidence of sustainable practices as stated by companies’ policies and active programmes.

In some instances, contribution to impact objectives cannot be captured fully through revenue analysis, or data might simply not be completely available. This is the case of process-related impact, for example:

Responsible animal treatment
Increased product lifespan
Upholding fair and transparent value chains
Efforts to reduce waste and include recycled inputs (e.g. in fabrics)

In such cases our analysts look at qualitative evidence of contribution to these objectives, for example in the form of policies and programmes, or active participation to relevant platforms. This allows to also tackle challenges that can be traced back to other relevant SDGs, in a more qualitative fashion.

Do no harm

After screening companies for positive impact, the selection is further reinforced by the application of minimum standards, which are internally developed and regularly updated.

The main objective and rationale of minimum standards is ensuring that we do not invest in companies offering products or adopting behaviours that clash with our vision and beliefs, and that could hinder progress in any of the transitions.

Companies in this theme mostly belong to industries such as pharmaceuticals and medical technology, lifestyle and leisure, and household and personal care. For such companies, the main minimum standards applied are the following:

Animal testing is a very relevant topic in the healthcare sector, especially for pharmaceuticals and medical equipment companies, but also for companies producing personal products. In principle, Triodos only accepts animal testing for medical products. All companies involved in tests on vertebrate animals must at least have a policy that addresses the three Rs:

Reduce the number of animals;
Replace with other options;
Refine testing to ensure most humane practices.

Pharmaceutical companies must also meet a number of additional requirements.

Genetic engineering is another relevant topic in the healthcare sector and, to a lesser extent, the personal products companies. Genetic engineering has many benefits but Triodos applies an ethical approach and each company is carefully assessed on our minimum standards on genetic engineering.

Healthcare Equipment companies could potentially be involved with conflict minerals therefore our minimum standard on this topic is relevant.

For several industries, human rights in the supply chain is considered important, especially in apparel and footwear companies.

We track controversies related to our minimum standards for all companies we invest in and engage with companies on material controversies that violate our minimum standards or that could lead to a breach of our minimum standards, e.g. following a merger.

Investment examples

For this theme we invest in companies that are already well aligned with our vision (upper right), and in companies that display a clear commitment to move towards more sustainable practices, and that we deem suited for the challenge (upper left). We may also invest in smaller, innovative actors that can benefit the business ecosystem with their solutions (lower left).

Here we have selected three examples of companies we invest in, and placed them on the transition curve. Scroll down for more examples and an up-to-date list of our investments in this theme.

Adidas is one of the largest sportswear companies in the world, offering athletic and sports lifestyle products like footwear, apparel, and accessories.
Adidas derives most of its revenues from products that stimulate people to move and be physically active, thus contributing to the promotion of healthy lifestyles.
The company increasingly uses sustainable materials and practices in its production, like better cotton, recycled plastic from the oceans, and waterless dyeing. The company commits to only using recycled polyester by 2024 and aims to be carbon neutral by 2050 throughout its supply chain.
Adidas is an advanced company when it comes to recognising living wages as a salient issue and having effective processes in place to ensure progress.

Essity is a Swedish company that develops, produces, and sells personal care products globally.
Through its high revenue exposure to incontinence devices, wound dressing, compression care and orthopaedic products, the company contributes to improving personal care and hygiene, in line with SDG 3 ‘Good Health & Wellbeing”
The company also displays attention for resource use: most of its packaging is made of paper which is derived from renewable or recycled fibre. The company also aims to have its plastic packaging to comprise of 25% recycled plastic by 2025.
Essity adheres to the FSC certification scheme on paper origin and has demonstrated to be active in demanding high standards from its suppliers.

Teladoc is a telehealth platform, delivering 24/7 on-demand healthcare via mobile devices, the internet, video, and phone. It connects patients with physicians and behavioural health professionals who treat a broad array of healthcare needs, ranging from flu, to behavioural health to cancer.
The platform contributes to healthcare accessibility, by making quality health services available to patients at any time.
Telemedicine provides significant potential to bridge rural areas with cities where healthcare services are concentrated.
The service Teladoc provides can contribute to decreasing the burden on emergency rooms as well as virtualizing several home health attendant services. Telemedicine may also in some cases provide the setting for a good assessment of the patient’s problem, as patients may give more honest feedback to the doctor from the comfort of their home.

Prosperous and Healthy People Investments

Prosperous and Healthy People