Investing for impact in listed assets
Investments that seek to deliver a positive, measurable impact while generating financial returns
Our expertise 1Source: AXA IM, as at 30 June 2025.
Impact strategies covering equities and fixed income
Assets under management in listed impact strategies globally (Source: AXA IM, as at 30 June 2025).
Years’ experience managing green bond strategies
Years’ experience managing impact equity strategies
Overview
Impact investing goes beyond traditional responsible and sustainable investing by actively targeting solutions to some of the world’s most urgent challenges—climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequality. It focuses on supporting innovative products, services and projects that have the potential to generate positive, measurable impact alongside delivering strong financial returns.
This approach demonstrates that creating positive change and achieving financial success are not mutually exclusive. Issuers that are financially stable, well-managed, and strategically positioned may be best placed to deliver both positive measurable impact and long-term growth.
This means having a disciplined, intentional, and credible method for measuring real-world outcomes is essential to ensure that investments make a positive and measurable difference.
Generating positive impact in two ways
Asset contribution - Investing in solutions
Investors in listed assets have the power to help create meaningful and immediate positive impact on urgent global challenges by providing capital for companies and projects offering solutions in areas such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequality.
Whether transforming millions of lives, promoting sustainable practices across vast areas, or reducing millions of tonnes of CO₂ emissions, these solutions are essential for building a fairer, healthier, and more sustainable world.
Moreover, the benefits of these investments often extend far beyond their direct operations. They have the potential to positively influence communities and ecosystems worldwide, reaching well beyond local stakeholders.
Investor contribution - Engaging to drive real-world change
Active, ongoing engagement with the issuers we invest in is crucial to achieving measurable, real-world impact. Our goal is to encourage them to increase and improve their positive social and environmental outcomes.
We urge them to adopt best practices and share transparent, quantitative indicators of the impact they make. Through continuous dialogue with management, we monitor progress and ensure our investments are driving positive meaningful, visible change in biodiversity, climate change, and social progress worldwide.
Investment opportunity
Global trends driven by urgent need
Across the world there is an increasing focus on ecosystem preservation, resource efficiency, and inclusive development. For governments and businesses, they are seen as key drivers for resilience and competitiveness. These commitments present a compelling opportunity for impact investors, addressing challenges like biodiversity loss, the energy transition, social exclusion, and cyber threats.
We look for issuers that demonstrate solid financial fundamentals and sustainability credentials. We believe they have the greatest potential to generate a long-term positive impact and the potential to generate strong financial returns over the long-term.
Impact investing at AXA Investment Managers
Equity strategies
Our equity impact strategies focus on investing in companies that are generating positive and measurable change alongside financial returns.
Fixed income strategies
Our green, social and sustainability (GSS) bond strategies deliver positive and measurable environmental and social impact with robust issuer and GSS bond selectivity integrating AXA IM’s GSS Bond framework.
Our approach to listed impact investing
Find out more about our approach to listed impact investing – Driving impact in listed assets investments.
Find out more
Our labelled impact funds
AXA People & Planet Equity
An actively managed strategy, investing in companies of all sizes anywhere in the world. We invest in companies providing products and services that make a measurable, positive impact on people and planet.
AXA Green Short Duration Bond
A diversified fixed income strategy that aims to limit exposure to interest rate risk by focusing on bonds with maturities of 0-5 five years. It invests exclusively in green bonds financing projects in the Smart Energy, Low Carbon Transportation, and Green Buildings sectors to support the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Why AXA IM?
Information about the staff team is only informative. We do not guarantee the fact that staff remain employed by AXA Investment Managers and exercise or continue to exercise in AXA Investment Managers.
We launched our first responsible investing mandate in 1998, investing in small- and mid-cap listed companies in an effort to drive sustainable job creation in France. Since then, we have continued to be at the forefront of innovation in socially responsible investing.
We now manage impact strategies in private investments, green bonds and listed equities, seeking to support solutions that directly address environmental and social issues. We are founding members of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), helping to set the standard for listed impact investing strategies.
Track record
- 25 years – responsible investing
- 10 years – Green bonds
- 3 years – Biodiversity
- 2 Years – AXA People & Planet Equity
Analytical resources
- 27 – responsible investing and ESG analysts
- 4 – Green, social and sustainability bond analysts
- 6 – Equity ESG and impact analysts
Disclaimer
Key risks
AXA People & Planet Equity Fund
- Equity risk
- ESG risk
- Concentration risk
- Currency risk
- Emerging Markets risk
- Industry sector risk
- UN SDG alignment risk
- Smaller companies risk
- Stock lending risk
- AXA UK Sustainable Equity Fund
- Equity risk
- ESG risk
- Stock lending risk
AXA Green Short Duration Bond Fund
- ESG risk
- Credit risk
- Interest Rate risk
- Prepayment and extension risk
- Index-linked bonds risk
- High yield bonds risk
- Risks linked to investment in sovereign debt
- Emerging Markets risk
- Stock lending risk
- Liquidity risk
- Counterparty risk
- Currency risk
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AXA Green Short Duration Bonds Fund is a sub fund. of AXA IM Fixed Income Investment Strategies which is a Luxembourg UCITS.
AXA People & Planet Equity Fund is an authorised unit trust for the purposes of the Act and are constituted as a trust by a Trust Deed pursuant to the COLL Sourcebook. Each Fund is a UK UCITS which complies with the COLL Sourcebook.
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Risk Warning
The value of investments, and the income from them, can fall as well as rise and investors may not get back the amount originally invested.