Exec. Vice President, Storebrand

Elin M. Myrmel-Johansen is the Executive Vice President for Corporate Responsibility in Storebrand ASA. She has been with the Storebrand Group since 2000, starting as a Management Trainee, holding positions as Internal Brand Manager and manager for Corporate Responsibility. She became part of the Executive Management Group in January 2008, and is also a member of the Corporate Assembly of Telenor ASA.

Mrs. Myrmel-Johansen holds a Master’s degree in comparative politics from the London School of Business and Political Science (LSE), and a cand.polit (M.Phil.) degree from the University of Bergen. 

Elin Myrmel-Johansens thoughts on climatechange:

I believe that the societal changes that the world is facing, from climate change and water scarcity to poverty and migration, will fundamentally change the framework for doing business in the future. Corporations that hope this will pass or think its none of their business, will not survive. The winners will be those that actively meet these challenges though their core business, by creating new profitable products and services that help solve some of these challenges.

Based on this, we have integrated societal considerations into all our business operations and strategy processes. For example, there are  two main reasons behing Storebrand’s decision to integrate corporate social and environmental considerations when making financial investment decisions more than 14 years ago:

First of all, we would like to be proactive and part of the solution, and it is as an investor and asset manager that we have the greatest influence in the direction of a more sustainable future.

Secondly, we believe that in the long-term pespective, investing in the ’best’ and avoiding the ’worst’ companies in terms of social and environmental performance, reduces operational and financial risk. So far, data from 14 years of experience with these types of investment tell us that this does not affect return (i.e. tracking error is not affected).

It is through its investments Storebrand best can influence business and society in the direction of more sustainable development. Storebrand applies a comprehensive responsible investment standard to all its own investments. In 2008 Storebrand strengthened its commitment by expanding the current climate change analysis for funds and by introducing a new climate change criterion into its current Group standard for responsible investment. In the analysis, a company’s strategic understanding of, and contribution to, climate change is evaluated. Storebrand will not invest in the worst performers within specific industries that are particularly climate intensive.

We lose this power if we don’t hold shares and if we are unable to ’put our money where our mounth is’. Even if this is complicated, takes many years of practice and raises a lot of dilemmas, it is much better to do something than not to do anything just beacuse we think it is too difficult.