AXA was one of the first institutional investors to proactively engage in impact investing, an investment strategy that aims to generate objectively measurable and intentional environmental and social impacts alongside financial returns, both of which are explicitly and intentionally integrated into the management strategy.

In 2013, AXA committed €200M to launch its first impact fund, focused on financial inclusion, access to healthcare and education. In 2016, AXA allocated an additional €150M to create Fund 2, focused on environmental and social impact. In 2019, AXA launched its third impact fund with $350M, dedicated to biodiversity and climate change, and then in 2020 allocated $50M in a 4th fund promoting financial inclusion and access to healthcare in emerging countries, bringing the total commitment to approximatively €700M since 2013.

The AXA Impact 3: “Climate & Biodiversity” Fund was launched in May 2019 at the G7 Environment ministerial meetings with the aim of combating climate change and protecting biodiversity and ecosystems: natural capital, efficient use of resources, improving the resilience of communities vulnerable to the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss. In particular, it supports:

• Komaza: a timber production project with the ambition to become the largest sustainable forest enterprise in Africa. AXA’s investment will contribute to the reforestation of 37,000 hectares of degraded land, thereby capturing 17.5 Mt of CO₂. This investment strengthens climate resilience by aligning the financial interests of local communities (50,000 farmers) with conservation.
• Forest Carbon Indonesia: is a project developer specializing in the conservation and restoration of degraded tropical forests, peatlands and wetland ecosystems in Indonesia, Malaysia and Cambodia. The company has been operating for over a decade, with its most notable project to date being the Sumatra Merang Peatland Project in Indonesia. This project has led to the restoration of more than 74,000 hectares of peatland forest, captured 26MT of CO₂, generated 22MT of carbon credits, and protected more than 20 species. AXA has committed $11 million to forest carbon restoration projects for wetlands in Indonesia.

Sanergy is a waste management company based in Nairobi, Kenya, founded in 2011 in a quest for a sustainable full value chain approach to addressing the sanitation crisis in slums. Sanergy’s mission is in line with a circular economy, collecting and transforming organic waste into insect protein for animal feed, fertilizer, biomass briquettes. 1.2 million tons of waste will be disposed of and recycled by 2024, 50,000 tons of bio-fertilizer will be produced, as well as 51,000 tons of insect protein, and 140,000 tons of biomass briquettes from waste, offering a sustainable alternative to charcoal. The greater scale will bring significant environmental benefits, avoiding 630,000 tons of CO₂e emissions and favouring the complentary use of organic fertilizers over 51,000 hectares of land, with additional benefits in terms of soil biodiversity and productivity.