Environmental, Social and Governance Policy
1 | About us
HeavyFinance is here to remind the critical role that agriculture plays in the life and subsistence of any given society. Not only is it the backbone of the economic system, but it’s also the source of food and raw materials.
On the other hand, the agriculture sector is one of the major climate polluters. We aim to return balance to nature, by helping farmers to deploy sustainable land management practices.
HeavyFinance operate as a pure marketplace for agricultural loans. It connects small and medium agricultural enterprises with a global investor community from retail investors, to companies and family offices, to institutional investors.
2 | Scope
2.1. This Environmental, Social and Governance Policy describes the main environmental, social and sustainable governance objectives HeavyFinance aim to implement in order to:
2.1.1. contribute to public well-being with the focus on rural economies;
2.1.2. promote sustainable governance;
2.1.3. promote achievement of long-term goals;
2.1.4 Contribute to the goal of the Paris Agreement: to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.
3 | Integrating ESG in HeavyFinance investment process
ASSESS
- We assess investment applications through ESG due diligence and ESG materiality analyses.
AVOID & EXCLUDE
- HeavyFinance avoid to facilitate investments into agricultural enterprises whose activity cause negative environmental and social impact with no opportunity to mitigate the negative impacts.
- HeavyFinance does not facilitate investments into agricultural enterprises whose direct or indirect activity cause environmental and social harm.
INCENTIVIZE & SUPPORT
- HeavyFinance incentivize farms that use funds for significant mitigation of climate change by providing them with better financing conditions
- We periodically evaluate positive change created by our activities and actively engage with farmers to help them build better understanding of regenerative agriculture.
REPORT
- We ensure transparency of our activities by calculating climate change mitigation effect and publishing results in annual ESG reports.
4 | Oversight
4.1. To ensure HeavyFinance compliance with ESG policy goals, the ESG Steering Committee (“Committee”) is established.
4.2. The Committee is responsible for steering operations of the company regarding principles, established in the ESG policy; reviewing the ESG Policy annually and amending it as needed.
4.3. The Committee is chaired by the Head of Decarbonization and Sustainability group and is composed of senior officers of the company from different areas.
5 | Knowledge sharing
4.1. We believe that collaboration and knowledge sharing is an important element of a good corporate culture and developing ESG related capabilities. HeavyFinance management team undertake the following to support this approach:
- encourage attendance of employees at relevant conferences and seminars;
- organizing seminars (at least once a year for each theme) on environmental, social and governance topics;
- inviting experts to share relevant information and updates on environmental, social and governance topics recent developments;
- joining relevant associations and initiatives established to promote responsible environmental, social and governance practices.
6 | Monitoring and reporting
5.1. HeavyFinance monitors a wide range of Key Performance Indicators (“KPIs”) in the assets of funds it manages and its own employees and activities, which are reviewed annually.
5.2. All KPI data are gathered and reviewed by the ESG Steering Committee.
5.3. A subset of these KPIs are reported publicly in the annual ESG report.
Environmental
Please take a look at our Environmental policy (link to policy).
Ethics and Governance
HeavyFinance aim to conduct operations in compliance with the highest legal and ethical standards and we promote the same set of standards to farmers we invest in.
We are committed to:
- Comply with relevant regulations
- Manage conflicts of interest (link to policy)
- Avoid corruption (link to policy)
- Implement effective whistleblower mechanism (link to policy)
- Maintain confidentiality and protect intellectual property
- Promote responsible marketing
Social Issues
HeavyFinance aim at ensuring the well-being of our employees and contributing to the community we operate within.
7 | Diversity, equality and inclusion
HeavyFinance value diversity, equality and inclusion (DE&I) principles and make sure we integrate them in different aspects of our operations. Please take a look at our DE&I policy (link to policy).
8 | Giving back to community
8.1. We give back to the community in different ways:
- Our founders get involved in start-up ecosystem, sharing their experience and advice how to develop successful business and grow, as well as mentoring future entrepreneurs;
- HeavyFinance participate in charitable programmes, supporting people in need and other social initiatives;
- We educate farmers about regenerative agriculture, and promote sustainability;
- We organize public discussions about sustainability to spread the ideas of taking care of our planet through regenerative methods of agriculture.
8.2. Being among first movers in focusing on sustainable farming financing, we aim at creating an ecosystem around regenerative agriculture: including private and public sector stakeholders, communities and other relevant stakeholders.