About us

The Central
Labelling Agency

The Central Labelling Agency (CLA) is a not-for-profit association incorporated under Belgian law. Its goal is to enlarge the impact and substance of sustainable saving and investing. And to substantially strengthen the qualitative approach to sustainable financial products.

220513 CLA Web graphics 87 v2

Eligibility commission

The assessment of the products applying for the label will be performed by the Eligibility Commission. The commission consists of experts from the financial sector and from the non-financial sector, e.g. academia and civil society. The number of Financial Sector Experts cannot exceed the number of Independent Experts.

Tasks

The Eligibility Commission will advise the Board of Directors on awarding the ‘Towards Sustainability’ label to individual products, based on the assessment reports received from the independent Verifier.

It also develops and proposes technical changes to the Quality Standard to the Board of Directors.

Members

Independent experts

Luc

Luc Van Liedekerke - Chair

(University Antwerp)

Luc is Professor of economy and philosophy and teaches philosophy and business ethics at the universities of Leuven and Antwerp. He is also chairman of EBEN (European Business Ethics Network), a network of 1200 business ethics spread over 40 countries. He is prominent expert in sustainable investments and serves as the chairman of the Register Committee of Ethibel and also has a seat in the Vigeo Eiris Scientific Committee.

Siem

Siem de Ruijter

(UCLL Leuven)

Siem is lecturer at UC Leuven-Limburg where he teaches investing, accounting and entrepreneurship. At UC Leuven-Limburg, he also works on research and projects on sustainable saving and investing.

He is co-author of ‘Ethisch beleggen is voor iedereen’ (‘Ethical investing is for everyone’ in English), published in 2016.

Marie Lambert

Marie Lambert

(HEC Liège)

Marie is Full Professor and Vice-Dean for Research at HEC Liège - Management School of the University of Liège. She leads the track “Banking and Asset Management” of the master in management and teaches courses on Asset Management, Alternative Investments, Corporate Finance and Financial Modeling. Marie is also Affiliate Professor at EDHEC Business School (Nice) and at Paris Dauphine as well as a Research Associate at the EDHEC Risk Institute and a Quantitative Management Initiative research fellow. Marie has developed a research expertise in asset pricing models, market anomalies, investment styles (value, growth investing), and hedge funds. Her current research interests lie in sustainable finance (e.g., climate risk pricing, disagreement in ESG ratings, performance analysis of ESG investments) and private equity.

Olivier

Olivier Marquet

Until recently, Olivier was Director General of UNICEF Belgium and before he was Managing Director of Triodos Bank Belgium (2003-2015). During his time at Triodos, he gave more than 100 conferences on sustainable finance and gave his advice to a number of social and environmental associations. With a long career and expertise in sustainable investment, he is currently member of the advisory committee of the Louvain School of Management and of the King Baudouin Foundation.

Financial sector experts

Virginia

Virginia Schreurs

(Assuralia)

Virginia is working as Sustainability manager and Policy Advisor on Life Insurance at Assuralia, the umbrella association of insurance companies operating in Belgium. As such she treats a divers set of topics concerning consumer protection regulation, investment rules for life insurance, sustainable finance and anti-money laundering.

Tom

Tom Van den Berghe

(Febelfin)

Tom is Director Sustainable Finance at Febelfin, the Belgian Federation of the financial sector. In his current role, he led the development of the Towards Sustainability Quality Standard and label. He is also responsible for a wide range of sustainable finance issues, going from sustainable lending and investing, ESG data gathering, circular economy and biodiversity. He studied philosophy and started his career at the Belgian Asset Managers Association (BEAMA).

Andy

Andy Vangenck

(BEAMA)

Andy is Senior Counsel Asset Management & Private Banking at Belgium Asset Managers Association (BEAMA). Among his multiple fields of responsibilities which include sustainable investment funds, he has followed the development of the Quality Standard and the label for sustainable financial products from the initial conception phase. He previously worked for Assuralia, the umbrella association of Belgian and foreign insurance and reinsurance companies operating in Belgium.

Towards Sustainability label