The ecological and social product features listed below are intended to disclose to you, the investor, which ecological and social issues play an important role in the management of the Fund.

When selecting securities, the Fund gives preference to issuers, i.e. states and companies, with social and/or ecological characteristics described below ("ecological and/or social product characteristics").

Companies

• Compliance with the principles of the UN Global Compact
  The Global Compact is a strategic initiative of the United Nations, which has defined ten universally recognised principles in the areas of human rights, labour standards, environmental protection and anti-corruption, which companies from all sectors should comply with. Social criteria such as compliance with core labour rights and freedom of association and trade unions are taken into account here when evaluating companies according to ESG criteria. But governance criteria such as the prevention of corruption and bribery also play an important role in this product characteristic.

• Ecologically sound energy policy
  To stop climate change we have to transition away from climate-damaging energy sources such as coal, oil and gas as quickly as possible. Burning fossil fuels, e.g. for electricity, releases large amounts of greenhouse gases and is the main cause of global warming. But this product feature also takes into account the necessary reduction of risks associated with nuclear energy, and the related waste disposal problems. For this reason, when selecting companies for investment, the Fund pays particular attention to the ecological criteria of environmentally compatible production and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the Fund distances itself from unconventional methods of extracting natural gas and crude oil, such as fracking and oil sands, because they can also cause ecological damage in various phases of the extraction process. The dangers include, for example, the contamination of groundwater and drinking water, noise and air emissions, the large scale of land usage and high water consumption.

• Zero tolerance for producers of outlawed and nuclear weapons
  There are many weapons that cause disproportionate suffering and continue to pose a threat long after a conflict has been resolved. The most commonly identified outlawed weapons are cluster bombs and landmines, nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and their strategic components such as enriched uranium.

States

• Respect for civil rights and liberties
  The research organisation Freedom House produces an annual report assessing the degree of democracy and freedom in nations around the world. Democratic forms of government in which the democratic instruments of co-determination are not restricted are considered "free" in this report.

To achieve the ecological and social product characteristics, the Fund combines the use of strict exclusion criteria with the analysis of financially relevant sustainability opportunities and risks, and traditional securities analysis. By applying negative screening (exclusion process), the initial investment universe is limited to those securities that meet good sustainability standards.

Exclusion criteria have been defined for the Fund in order to exclude from the outset companies and countries that are active in certain controversial business areas or commit violations of recognised standards. Violating an exclusion criterion leads to the issuer being ruled out of investment considerations.

Exclusion criteria for companies are defined as:

• Production of addictive substances: Gambling, tobacco (turnover tolerance 5% each)
• Production of outlawed weapons (e.g. cluster bombs or land mines) or nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, or their strategic components such as enriched uranium
• Production and/or distribution of conventional weapons (systems) (turnover tolerance 5%)
• Production of thermal coal (turnover tolerance 5%) and its conversion into electricity (turnover tolerance 25%)
• Serious violation of the ten principles of the UN Global Compact (human and labour rights, environmental protection and corruption)
• Oil and gas production using unconventional methods: oil sands and fracking (turnover tolerance 5% each).
• Operation of nuclear power plants, products and services for nuclear power plants, extraction of uranium (turnover tolerance 5% each)

• Pornography and pornographic entertainment services (turnover tolerance 5%)

Exclusion criteria for states are defined as:

• Unfree states according to Freedom House ("Not free")

• Countries with a CCC sustainability rating according to MSCI ESG Research

The following are defined as exclusion criteria for financial instruments:

• Agricultural commodities 

Compliance with these criteria is monitored on an ongoing basis. The corresponding investment universe results from applying the above exclusion criteria.

The Fund Manager then performs a comprehensive review process with intensive analysis of the individual securities in the investment universe. All securities considered for investment must go through this screening process. In addition to the traditional securities analysis, which looks at the selected securities from a financial point of view using, for example, balance sheet ratios or profit and loss account ratios, particular attention is paid to the analysis of financially relevant sustainability opportunities and risks. The sustainability analysis is thus not an additional or separate assessment that comes after the financial analysis, it is carried out together with an economic consideration of the company. It helps to quickly identify and react to operational and reputational risks and can protect investors from financial losses.

When assessing the sustainability of an issuer, MEAG relies in particular on the ESG analyses of the ESG research provider MSCI ESG Research LLC (see section "Data sources and processing"). MSCI ESG Research analyses issuers on the basis of three areas: Environment (E), Social (S) and Good Corporate Governance (G). The MSCI ESG rating analysis also includes a thorough governance assessment. This includes, among other things, an examination of suspected corruption, violations of the board's independence and remuneration policies. Further information can be found on the internet at www.msci.com/esg-ratings.

Also the choice of exclusion criteria is intended to ensure that the Fund only invests in issuers that meet the requirements of good corporate governance. For example, investments in companies are ruled out if there is information that they have seriously violated any of the ten principles of the UN Global Compact.

The achievement of each of the product characteristics described in the section "Ecological or social characteristics of the product" is measured using the sustainability indicators listed below:

We constantly monitor and measure the sustainability indicators during a financial year. At the end of the financial year, we publish the result for each sustainability indicator in the annual report. For information on how we measure the achievement of the ecological or social product characteristics, please refer to the section "Methods used to measure the achievement of the ecological or social characteristics".

We ensure our upholding of the ecological and social product characteristics in particular through the choice of product-specific exclusion criteria (see section "Investment strategy").

The responsible company department monitors the legal and regulatory limits on a daily basis as well as the sustainability-related exclusion criteria resulting from the pre-contractual documents (sales prospectus together with the Fund Investment Rules, available at this Link). The specifications are implemented in the company's trading system and used by the portfolio management for ex-ante verification, blocking any transaction that would/could cause a limit violation. If a transaction is refused, the predefined chain of action is applied: Portfolio Management and Limit Management come together, discuss the situation and initiate appropriate measures.

All contractual and legal fund limits are thus continuously monitored and any violations (active/passive) communicated in line with the escalation model.

The process described above ensures that the Fund portfolio only holds securities that are classified as investable according to its sustainability criteria. If a security no longer meets the specified criteria and is no longer considered sufficiently sustainable, the Fund Manager is obliged to sell the security within a reasonable period of time.

In regular product meetings, we review among other things the ecological or social characteristics and the investment strategy of the Fund. As a rule, the Fund's management, the ESG specialist team and the product management are involved in this analysis. We also constantly monitor market developments in the field of sustainability and sustainable investment products, where necessary further developing the Fund's sustainable investment strategy.

The Fund's auditor also audits the Fund annually.

We measure the achievement of the product characteristics listed in the section "Ecological or social characteristics of the product" using the sustainability indicators listed in the section "Ongoing monitoring of ecological or social characteristics".

We measure the sustainability indicators on a regular basis using the MSCI ESG database. In doing so, we examine the Fund's portfolio for its compliance with the product characteristics using the defined sustainability indicators, to which corresponding MSCI ESG factors are assigned. The results of the analysis are made available to the Fund Manager on a regular basis so that, if necessary, appropriate changes can be made to improve the results in the portfolio.