<p>As one of Europe’s largest-producing actors in the energy sector with a wide energy mix, Vattenfall has a great responsibility to contribute to sustainable development of society. To do so, economical, environmental and social aspects need to be balanced in a responsible way. This is done through acting social responsible or in other terms, addressing corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the company’s business activities. Electricity and heat constitute one of the prerequisites for a modern society. However, it has always been a highly debated industry due to its inevitable impact on the environment and society. This makes it crucial for Vattenfall and its operations to act as responsible as possible and listen to the stakeholders and take their expectations into account in the business decisions process. Vattenfall has a long history of being criticised for its activities by NGOs and media. However, Vattenfall´s main task is to deliver electricity and heat to the society, which means that Vattenfall must continue to deliver secure energy supply to its markets, but with as little negative impact on the environment and society as possible.</p><p> </p><p>Vattenfall is through its operations, its value chain, its use of technology and the markets on which it operates, exposed to risks associated with the areas human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. These “CSR risks” can harm the reputation, brand and image if they are not managed in a proactive and effective way. In order to manage CSR risks and emerging CSR issues, the company needs to catch and respond quickly to new trends and expectations raised by opinion formers, which often are expressed through the media and the Internet. The aim of this study is to provide Vattenfall with a tool to do so. Through identifying the main CSR risks related to its operations, awareness about Vattenfall’s vulnerability areas are created. The result shows that the largest CSR risks for Vattenfall are technology related, i.e., connected to the fuels used in Vattenfall’s power plants and their value chain. This knowledge can be used when addressing CSR in the organization.</p><p>Still, a direct solution to manage CSR risks and emerging CSR issue is needed. The second purpose of this study is to propose a process for a CSR issues management at Vattenfall. The aim of such an issues management is to provide the company with a tool to identify, analyse and manage emerging issues. A CSR issues management will provide Vattenfall with a tool to respond to emerging issues before they become public knowledge. It should scan and collect external and internal information, identify relevant information for Vattenfall, monitor ongoing and emerging CSR issues/concerns/debates and report to relevant functions in the Vattenfall organization.</p>

As one of Europe’s largest-producing actors in the energy sector with a wide energy mix, Vattenfall has a great responsibility to contribute to sustainable development of society. To do so, economical, environmental and social aspects need to be balanced in a responsible way. This is done through acting social responsible or in other terms, addressing corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the company’s business activities. Electricity and heat constitute one of the prerequisites for a modern society. However, it has always been a highly debated industry due to its inevitable impact on the environment and society. This makes it crucial for Vattenfall and its operations to act as responsible as possible and listen to the stakeholders and take their expectations into account in the business decisions process. Vattenfall has a long history of being criticised for its activities by NGOs and media. However, Vattenfall´s main task is to deliver electricity and heat to the society, which means that Vattenfall must continue to deliver secure energy supply to its markets, but with as little negative impact on the environment and society as possible.   Vattenfall is through its operations, its value chain, its use of technology and the markets on which it operates, exposed to risks associated with the areas human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. These “CSR risks” can harm the reputation, brand and image if they are not managed in a proactive and effective way. In order to manage CSR risks and emerging CSR issues, the company needs to catch and respond quickly to new trends and expectations raised by opinion formers, which often are expressed through the media and the Internet. The aim of this study is to provide Vattenfall with a tool to do so. Through identifying the main CSR risks related to its operations, awareness about Vattenfall’s vulnerability areas are created. The result shows that the largest CSR risks for Vattenfall are technology related, i.e., connected to the fuels used in Vattenfall’s power plants and their value chain. This knowledge can be used when addressing CSR in the organization. Still, a direct solution to manage CSR risks and emerging CSR issue is needed. The second purpose of this study is to propose a process for a CSR issues management at Vattenfall. The aim of such an issues management is to provide the company with a tool to identify, analyse and manage emerging issues. A CSR issues management will provide Vattenfall with a tool to respond to emerging issues before they become public knowledge. It should scan and collect external and internal information, identify relevant information for Vattenfall, monitor ongoing and emerging CSR issues/concerns/debates and report to relevant functions in the Vattenfall organization.

Cette thèse examine l’impact de l’investissement socialement responsable sur le risque et la performance des portefeuilles. Elle s’articule autour de quatre études, dont trois études empiriques. La première étude propose un état des lieux et une analyse critique des risques RSE des portefeuilles. Elle indique que les risques RSE évalués de diverses manières selon les acteurs existent toujours au sein des portefeuilles et évoluent en fonction du contexte institutionnel. Leur niveau peut être plus au moins élevé selon les pratiques RSE des entreprises dans lesquelles les capitaux sont placés. La deuxième étude porte sur l’analyse comparative du risque financier des fonds ISR et des fonds conventionnels. Sur un échantillon de fonds commercialisés en France sur la période 2002-2012, nos résultats montrent que les fonds ISR peuvent avoir un niveau de diversification plus élevé que les fonds conventionnels appariés, quelles que soient les conditions de marché. Il s’agit des fonds ISR investis dans la zone euro et à l’international. Cependant, les fonds ISR investis dans la zone euro, en Europe et en France ont un risque systématique plus important que celui de leurs homologues classiques contrairement aux fonds ISR investis à l’international. La troisième étude analyse le risque financier des portefeuilles construits selon le niveau de performance ESG des entreprises sur la période2002-2014. Ces portefeuilles portent sur des entreprises de la zone euro, mais aussi sur des entreprises américaines. Nos analyses montrent que les portefeuilles américains qui sur-performent globalement ou individuellement sur les trois critères ESG ont un risque financier plus faible que ceux qui sous-performent sur ces dimensions. Pour les mêmes types de portefeuilles, la zone euro affiche un risque spécifique plus faible. Les résultats sur le risque systématique sont influencés par les effets relatifs au secteur d’activité pour les portefeuilles américains et par ceux relatifs au pays pour les portefeuilles de la zone euro. La quatrième étude examine la persistance de la performance financière des fonds ISR et des fonds conventionnels. Elle indique à travers les tests non-paramétriques qu’il n’existe pas de persistance de la performance pour les fonds ISR et les fonds conventionnels. / This thesis examines the impact of socially responsible investment on the risk and performance of portfolios. It is based on four studies, including three empirical studies.The first study proposes an inventory and a critical analysis of the portfolios' CSR risks. It indicates that CSR risks assessed in different ways by the actors still exist within the portfolios and evolve with the institutional context. Their level may be low or high depending on the CSR practices of the companies in which the resources are invested. The second study deals with the comparative analysis of the financial risk of SRI funds and conventional funds. On a sample of funds distributed in France over the period 2002-2012, our results show that SRI funds may have a higher level of diversification than matched conventional matched regardless of market conditions. These are SRI funds invested in the Eurozone and globally. However, regardless of market conditions, SRI funds invested in the Eurozone, Europe and France have a greater systematic risk than their traditional counterparts, contrary to SRI global funds. The third study analyzes the financial risk of portfolios built according to companies’ level of ESG performance over the period 2002-2014. These portfolios cover the Eurozone and the U.S. firms. Our analysis shows that the U.S. portfolios which over-perform on the aggregate ESG criteria or individually on the three ESG criteria have a lower financial risk than those that underperform on these dimensions. For the same types of portfolios, the Eurozone exhibit a lower specific risk. The results on the systematic risk are influenced by the industry-specific effects for the U.S. portfolios and the country-specific effects for the Eurozone portfolios. The fourth study examines the financial performance persistence of SRI and conventional funds. It shows through non-parametric tests that there is no performance persistence for both SRI and conventional funds.