Sustainable Investing

Sustainable Investing is our broad investment approach that seeks to deliver competitive risk adjusted market return by incorporating financially material ESG assessments and stewardship into our investment process. It complements traditional financial analysis and portfolio construction techniques. Financially material ESG considerations are an important part of MIM’s investment due diligence, which seeks to identify issues that may impact the reputation of a borrower, as well as its financial condition, credit rating and transaction pricing. When assessing the relevant risks associated with any investment opportunity, MIM conducts bottom-up fundamental research and focuses on multiple factors.

MIM believes that adhering to sound responsible business practices can minimize financial risks such as controversy-triggered loss of customers, fines, penalties and environmental clean-up costs. Focused on engagement and managing public fixed income, private capital and real estate assets, MIM aims to deliver strong, risk-adjusted returns by building tailored portfolio solutions to meet clients’ long-term investment objectives.

MIM maintains brochures, policies and disclosures that guide and communicate sustainability efforts within its investment processes. MIM updates policies when necessary to reflect best practices and prevailing market conditions.

One Financial Center in Boston has been recognized as a Biophilic Design Platinum winner for the building's efforts to increase occupant connectivity to the natural environment.

MIM’s policies and brochures include:

MIM Sustainable Investment Policy

MIM Stewardship Policy

MIM Public Fixed Income Sustainable Investing

MIM Private Capital Sustainable Investing

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MIM Real Estate Sustainable Investing

MIM Commercial Mortgage Lending ESG Policy

MIM Real Estate Equity ESG Investment Policy

MIM Agricultural Finance ESG Awareness

MIM's Stewardship and Sustainability Strategies include:

MIM Engagement

Fixed Income

Real Estate

Agricultural Lending

MIM Engagement

Engagement with company leadership is central to MIM’s approach to managing pecuniary investment risk. Ongoing dialogue also helps to raise awareness of responsible business practices. Engagement provides MIM’s investment analysts with an opportunity to better understand material, relevant risk factors, be clear about our expectations and improve data transparency.

MIM’s engagement conversations are guided by and recorded in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards’ Sustainability Alliance’s Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) sector-specific materiality matrix, which identifies relevant industry-specific ESG risks and opportunities for discussion. Further details supporting our engagement practices can be found within MIM’s Stewardship Policy.

MIM’s public and private fixed income teams have developed proprietary engagement databases designed to be fully integrated into each of their respective research processes. MIM engages on behalf of MetLife and third-party clients—see chart for a range of topics MIM covered in 2023. Case studies, offering examples and outcomes from our engagement activity, are provided within MIM’s Public Fixed Income and Private Capital Sustainable Investing brochures.

MIM Fixed Income 2023 Engagement Activity¹

Total Combaied Unique Issuer Engaagements: 361

Total Combaied Engagement Topics: 880

In addition to direct engagement, MIM’s investment analysts leverage collective engagement initiatives as an opportunity to partner with peers and other like-minded institutional investors to encourage transparency and increase access to more and improved information from which investment decisions can be made.

In 2023, MIM participated in several collective engagement initiatives that aimed to encourage sustainability data and disclosure transparency and standardization including:

MetLife invests in renewable energy projects such as wind and solar.

Transition Pathways Initiative “Assessing Sovereign Climate-related Opportunities and Risks” (ASCOR): MIM’s public fixed income team participated in the public consultation period of the ASCOR framework launch. The consultation was the culmination of 18 months of work by an international coalition of investors and investor networks. The result of that effort was the first publicly available, independent and open-source investor framework and database to assess the climate action and alignment of sovereigns. The ASCOR tool is now available, aiming to help investors assess sovereign exposure to climate risk and to encourage greater transparency between issuers, financial institutions and relevant stakeholders. 
CDP Non-Disclosure Campaign: MIM’s public and private fixed income teams participated in CDP’s annual Non-Disclosure Campaign, which is a collaboration with capital market signatories to engage with companies that have not yet disclosed through CDP’s annual climate change, forests and/or water security questionnaires. The intent of these efforts is to boost transparency and increase corporate disclosures. The companies with whom MIM engaged successfully completed their inaugural CDP questionnaires. 
PRI Advance: AIM’s sustainability research analysts are part of an ongoing PRI collaborative stewardship initiative referred to as PRI Advance. PRI Advance aims to advance human rights and positive outcomes for people through investor stewardship. AIM’s participation in PRI Advance has been primarily in support of our dedicated sustainability-focused strategies, specifically those to which their respective investment objectives are aligned with the SDGs.

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The Lee & White collection of 14 industrial buildings along the Atlanta Beltline integrated several sustainability features into its redevelopment and was completed using a $45 million commercial mortgage loan that MIM originated in 2020.

Real Estate

MetLife has been involved in real estate since 1878, and MIM provides debt and equity origination and institutional investment management capabilities across offices in the U.S. and international markets, including Chile, Japan, Korea, Mexico and the U.K.

Managing Climate Impacts
MetLife is supporting and financing solutions in the real estate sector that help manage risk, drive progress toward a low-carbon economy and create sustainable investment returns and outcomes.

MetLife’s 2030 target to reduce GHG emissions associated with its real estate equity investments by 50% from 2019 baseline on our path to Net Zero is a continuation of this strong track record.¹ To reduce emissions, MIM focuses on energy reduction and efficiency strategies, procurement of on-site and off-site renewables and ongoing dialogue with stakeholders across the properties it owns and controls. Between 2019 and 2022, financed emissions for MetLife's GA real estate equity investments have declined by 11%.

MIM is also a signatory of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Better Buildings Challenge and Better Climate Challenge and the Urban Land Institute’s Greenprint Net Zero Framework. MetZero^TM is MIM’s approach to systematically lower carbon emissions in the real estate properties we invest in and the properties under our operational control, including on behalf of MetLife and third-party clients. Between 2016 and 2022, this approach helped MIM achieve an 8% reduction in portfolio energy intensity according to the Better Buildings Challenge.³

Learn more about real estate research and insights, on topics such as building a climate‑aware portfolio and the impacts of a greening energy grid.

Creating Environmental and Social Benefits through Real Estate
MetLife leverages its core competencies as a responsible real estate investor to effectively manage risk and support positive environmental outcomes while achieving investment objectives. One Financial Center in Boston, for example, owned by a joint venture between MetLife GA and Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, has incorporated sustainable design strategies resulting in recognition as a Biophilic Design Platinum winner for its lobby renovations and identification of energy savings through its energy management program.

MIM offers MetLife, as well as its third-party clients and investors, strategies that seek to achieve income growth and capital appreciation by investing in competitively positioned properties in markets with favorable demand drivers. Multiple investment products have achieved five‑star status in the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark.

A community room at One65 Main, a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold-certified apartment building in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that offers a live-work-play-learn atmosphere.

As part of MIM’s effort to locate attractive investment opportunities with highly qualified sponsors, including those that have more diverse backgrounds than the typical institutional real estate investment partner, the MetLife GA approved a $54 million preferred equity investment in a New York City multi-family development in 2023 with MAG Partners, an experienced, woman-owned, urban real estate developer in the region. This project includes 30% affordable housing units.

MIM’s commercial mortgage loan business provides in-depth market expertise across multiple property types and locations. On behalf of MetLife, MIM originated a $130 million commercial mortgage loan in 2023 on One65 Main, a LEED gold-certified apartment building in Cambridge, Massachusetts. One65 Main enhances residents’ experience by offering a live-work-play-learn atmosphere. The property boasts high walk, transit and bike scores, electric vehicle charging stations and sustainable design elements, including a cool roof, efficient water features and ENERGY STAR® appliances. Sixty-one of the 300 residential units have been dedicated as affordable housing in perpetuity.

In 2023, the Lee & White collection of 14 industrial buildings along the Atlanta Beltline completed redevelopment using a $45 million commercial mortgage loan made by the MetLife GA in 2020. The project integrated several sustainability features, including drought-resistant landscape design, a 3,000-gallon rain collection system for common area use, bike storage, electric vehicle charging stations and the conversion of a former asphalt parking lot into a green space accessible to the public, with areas for community gathering, physical activity and outdoor dining. The property also supports the local community by serving as a venue for local art and free meeting space for community organizations

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Agricultural Lending

MetLife and MIM’s Agricultural Finance Group clients have provided long-term debt capital for farmers, ranchers, agribusinesses, forest products facilities and timberland owners for more than a century.³

In alignment with SASB’s framework, MIM’s Real Estate Debt and Agricultural Lending teams have developed in-house solutions to collect sustainability-related data from borrowers at the time of loan origination to expand the universe of decision-useful information relevant to agricultural finance. MIM seeks to work closely with clients on managing risk and creating strong risk‑adjusted returns by considering issues such as borrower character and corporate governance, labor practices, animal welfare, water availability and quality, and other topics and concerns related to the food industry.

MIM prioritizes lending to timber managers that employ a long-term timberland investment approach and emphasize sustainability. Jamestown’s “Seedlings to Solutions” mass timber project in Atlanta, Georgia, demonstrates how sustainably managed working forests can play a role in reducing the carbon footprint of the built environment. The four-story mass timber building, known as 619 Ponce, is being constructed using locally grown pine trees, including trees harvested from Jamestown’s timberland near Columbus, Georgia. This timberland also serves as collateral for MIM Agricultural Finance loans.

Currently, more than 90% of the acres serving as MIM Timber Regional Office collateral are certified under either the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, the Forest Stewardship Council or the American Tree Farm System, which are the three most widely recognized timberland sustainability certification programs.

See MIM’s MIM's Agricultural Finance ESG Awareness to learn more.

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Investing in Biodiversity and Nature

MetLife and MIM are proud to source investments that advance sustainability and contribute to protecting biodiversity and generating nature-positive outcomes. This includes managing sustainable forestry, installing drip irrigation for crops and supporting on-site pollinator projects that help protect and promote bee and other pollinator populations critical to supporting our food system and fiber crops. MIM’s real estate investment portfolio under management includes nine properties with beehives.

Please see For the Environment to learn more about beehives at MetLife’s corporate offices and MIM’s green building practices and certifications.