Sweden’s KPA Pension has used this year’s annual general meeting (AGM) season to push Swedish portfolio companies on road safety, deeming it “a high-impact area that often gets overlooked”, while also warning that CEOs have given less attention to sustainability in their speeches compared to previous years.

In its General Assembly report for 2025, the pension company, which is part of the Folksam Group, said it voted at 52 Swedish AGMs in 2025. It was also represented on the nomination committees of Telia, SSAB, Volvo Cars, Swedbank and Trelleborg.

Before each AGM season, KPA Pension’s Responsible Ownership department identifies a specific sustainability theme that forms the basis for the questions it asks at the AGMs. This year, it chose road safety, due to it being a sustainability issue with “untapped potential”.

“The Folksam Group has long been conducting extensive traffic research within the framework of its insurance operations. The issue is also relevant to KPA Pension in terms of the activities of municipalities and regions,” the report noted.

“International research shows that just over half of all serious traffic accidents worldwide occur in connection with various types of commercial transport. In other words, companies can influence this development by setting requirements both in their internal operations and in transport procurement and other collaborations.”

KPA Pension concluded from the season that it is clear that road safety is “not yet a priority issue on companies' sustainability agendas”.

“For example, very few companies mentioned the risks to people other than their employees or suppliers, but unsafe vehicles, tired drivers and a stressful schedule can have dire consequences for far more people than those behind the wheel. In other words, there is room for continued advocacy work,” the report stated.

Another takeaway from this year’s AGM season was that company CEOs spent less time addressing sustainability in their speeches compared to a couple of years ago.

Despite this, the pension fund still believes that these issues continue to be taken very seriously, forming an integral part of businesses.

On a similar theme, at several AGMs, KPA Pension asked about the resistance to
sustainability work that has emerged, particularly in the US, but also in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

“Although the responses varied somewhat from company to company, our view is that companies continue to see great value and a competitive advantage in proactively addressing sustainability-related risks and opportunities,” the report stated.

KPA Pension is not the only pension fund to raise questions on this topic. For example, the Swedish buffer fund, AP1, said in September that it is “following with concern” how shareholder rights are being challenged, particularly in the US, where the rules can make it more difficult for shareholders to influence company development.

This comes amid growing scrutiny over the influence of external forces on pension fund investments across Europe, with a report from the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) highlighting particular concerns over the growing influence of American asset managers in the Netherlands.

PFZW hit back at these claims, arguing that external parties have no influence on its voting behaviour, and has since announced a major overhaul of its portfolio that is intended to strengthen sustainability oversight.

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