In search of “sustainability” in retirement savings investment strategies (public and private): ESG factors

Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic that has marked acceleration on the effectiveness of a holistic approach to investment risk, the essay questions the absence in the Italian legislative discipline of both a method on which the compulsory pension institution and the supplementary pension form, in the face of the adoption of a responsible investment strategy, should base their portfolio choices in creating value for the member/insured and for the community as a whole, as much as the merit, i.e. an analytical description of the individual ESG parameters. It examines the recent innovations approved at the Euro-unitary which, not only have raised the level of attention on these issues but have also introduced a classifier and definitional approach that will allow from now on, although with reference only to the environmental factor, a univocal reading of data and measurements of ESG factors. Finally, it proposes some reflections on the possibility of providing pension funds and professional funds with a sustainable and responsible financial portfolio constraint, in compliance with the logic of proportionality and indicates some solutions, already regulated in the Italian legal system, on which they could immediately rely, waiting for the current (and multifaceted) regulatory framework to be consolidated and settled.