Shareholder Spotlight : Robeco – The Green Halo Stained Black

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Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. loves to call itself a pioneer of sustainable investing. From its glass towers in Rotterdam, it sermonises about responsibility and green growth while quietly pocketing profits from the very industries choking the planet. The Dutch asset manager – now just another cog in Japan’s ORIX machine – sells a story of conscience while its portfolios tell a dirtier truth. Behind the ESG buzzwords and cheery infographics sits a company happy to wade through filth as long as the yield’s good.

The Cummins Connection: Cashing in on Carbon

Robeco’s so-called stewardship includes a multimillion-dollar stake in Cummins. Yes, the same Cummins built defeat devices that tricked regulators and poisoned air across America, and Robeco still thought it was worth a punt. Their SEC filings show they ballooned their Cummins holdings by nearly a quarter in early 2025 before trimming back to about 329 000 shares worth around $100 million. Not an accident. A choice. A bet that soot pays better than sincerity.

This isn’t some passive index hiccup. It’s active complicity. Cummins’ “innovation” left nitrogen oxide trails and respiratory illnesses in its wake – yet Robeco calls this engagement. They publish glossy stewardship reports about dialogue and “transitioning portfolios”, but the truth is simple: they’re banking on diesel while pretending it’s daylight.

The Compliance Theatre

Of course, hypocrisy this polished needs props. In 2022, the Dutch regulator smacked Robeco with a €2 million fine for sloppy anti-money-laundering checks. Turns out, their sustainability saints weren’t too picky about where the money came from. Meanwhile, in India, their joint venture Canara Robeco quietly paid a ₹8.4 million settlement to close a SEBI probe into oversight failures. “No admission of guilt”, naturally – the corporate confession for “we did it but don’t make us say it”. Sounds eerily familiar.

Add to that a trail of tax disputes dating back more than a decade and a €1.6 million provision for client reimbursements, and you start to see the pattern: compliance as stagecraft, ethics as PowerPoint slides.

The Greenwash Machine

Robeco defines greenwashing as “exaggerating sustainability efforts for marketing gain”. By their own words, they’re guilty as hell. Their funds flaunt UN SDG badges, “net-zero pathways”, and enough forest stock imagery to make you gag. But Cummins still sits snug in their books. They’ll cut ties with tobacco or weapons but keep diesel polluters for the dividend. That isn’t stewardship; it’s laundering with spreadsheets.

Their 2024 study with the University of Zurich claims SDG-aligned companies avoid scandal. Cute. Cummins is still belching out violations, and Robeco’s still counting the returns. Every brochure, every smug sustainability summit appearance, is a layer of paint on a rusted chassis.

The Bigger Rot

Robeco’s story is the industry’s story: money dressed up as morality. Quant models crunch “risk exposure” while people breathe poisoned air. ESG committees hold meetings in recycled-air boardrooms while the planet burns outside. Their parent ORIX calls it diversification; we call it decay.

They have the tools to do better – to cut ties with polluters, to stop playing saint while collecting sinner’s profits – but they won’t. The numbers are too good. In finance, the only green that matters is the one you can count.

If Robeco wants redemption, it starts with subtraction: divest from Cummins, dump the PR gloss, and stop selling salvation by the tonne. Until then, they’re just another clean-branded hustler in a crude soiled suit.

Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project

Sources

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