Better Health for All

DWS Group is an asset management firm, and its core business activities of providing investment products and services do not directly involve health-related products or services that would typically have direct health impacts, safety implications, pricing for health products, or direct engagement with vulnerable populations for health needs. Therefore, many KPIs are not applicable. The company's operations do not generate direct health externalities, nor does it hold healthcare-related patents, produce food products, engage in clinical trials, or directly manage health data. While DWS Real Estate considers wellbeing, comfort, and air quality in its building certifications,

and one fund invests at least 51% of its assets in health care and wellness companies, these are indirect impacts or specific fund allocations not quantified across the entire firm's assets under management (around 1 trillion euros). There is no specific evidence regarding the net health effect of the firm's principal goods or services, the share of revenue from harmful health activities, or investment in health innovation relative to the entire business. The greenwashing fine of 25 million euros by German prosecutors and a $25 million settlement in the US relate to misleading ESG claims generally, not specifically to health-related aspects of its investments or operations.

Fair Pay & Worker Respect

The company received an overall employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 (72%) from Glassdoor reviews.

Employee satisfaction with compensation and benefits was reported at 80% on Comparably.

Honest & Fair Business

DWS Group incurred $25 million in ethics-related regulatory fines in the past three years.

This includes a $19 million fine from the SEC in 2023 for making materially misleading statements about its ESG investment process and controls, which was noted as the largest-ever greenwashing penalty imposed on an asset manager by the SEC. Additionally, DWS received a $6 million fine in 2023 for deficiencies in its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program, including using a general program instead of a tailored one for its mutual funds and automatically closing 90% of transaction monitoring alerts without review. The company has a formal Whistleblowing Policy that outlines procedures for reporting misconduct, irregularities, and corruption, including investigation procedures and protections against retaliation. DWS also has an anti-bribery and corruption policy, which is FCPA-compliant, but the frequency of training and effectiveness metrics are not specified.

Kind to Animals

DWS Group is an asset management firm, and its core business model does not involve activities directly related to animal welfare, such as product manufacturing, animal testing, or animal agriculture. Consequently, there is no evidence in the provided articles to score KPIs like cruelty-free certification, alternative testing usage, humane certified operations, ethical input substitution, cage-free sourcing, animal testing policy or volume, innovation investment in animal-free technologies, animal agriculture ethics, animal-free R&D collaboration, or public policy engagement on animal welfare.

While DWS has a partnership for ocean protection and considers biodiversity in its investment decisions, the articles do not provide measurable biodiversity impact or specific conservation metrics required to score the 'wildlife_conservation_impact' KPI. Similarly, the general mention of supply chain requirements is not specific enough to score 'supplier_audit_pct' for animal welfare compliance.

No War, No Weapons

DWS Group's fund arm has cut limits on military investments, indicating a move away from ethical red lines against such investments.

This change could open up hundreds of billions of euros for potential investment in the defense sector. There is no evidence of divestment from defense-related assets; instead, the company is expanding its potential for military business.

Planet-Friendly Business

DWS reported total Scope 1, 2, and 3 (business travel) emissions of 6,484 tCO₂e in 2022.

As an asset management firm, this is considered a non-material GHG footprint. The company committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2021, but validation is pending. DWS has a long-term target of achieving operational net zero by 2050. In 2022, DWS sourced 96% of its operational electricity from renewables. DWS will pay $25 million to settle charges over misstatements regarding its ESG investing with the SEC and was fined €25 million by the Frankfurt prosecutor's office for misleading investors. DWS does not maintain a policy exclusively focused on deforestation.

Respect for Cultures & Communities

No specific incidents of cultural appropriation are mentioned in the provided articles.

DWS expects investee companies to assess social implications and conduct assessments in line with official guidelines, but it is not explicitly stated that DWS itself has a formal cultural impact assessment protocol. DWS is generally supportive of proposals asking investee companies to provide grievance mechanisms for stakeholders, and expects investee companies operating in high-risk countries to enhance stakeholder engagement, but this does not confirm the availability of such mechanisms across DWS's own operational sites. DWS states that investee companies should disclose necessary information in English, indicating limited local language incorporation.

Safe & Smart Tech

DWS holds UKAS accredited certification to ISO 27001:2022 and is compliant with BS10012:2017.

The company uses sophisticated encryption methods internally and state-of-the-art security measures for online account access, but no percentage of data protected by strong encryption is provided. DWS employs a multifactor authentication method for online accounts and uses a caller verification process with security questions, but the availability percentage across services is not specified. Users have the right to access, delete, block, or correct their personal information free of charge, can revoke consent for data collection, and can manage cookie settings. DWS retains personal data only as long as necessary for its purpose, with website information retained only as long as needed, but specific retention periods or data minimization percentages are not provided. However, German prosecutors fined DWS 25 million euros and the company settled for $25 million in the United States for breaches of German financial investment laws related to greenwashing and misstatements linked to ESG investing, as well as failures in policies designed to prevent money laundering, from mid-2020 to January 2023.