Sustainability at MetLife FAQs

Sustainability at MetLife means managing business responsibly and sustaining people throughout their lives. Our purpose—Always with you, building a more confident future—drives our strategy and reflects the fundamental promise we make to our colleagues, communities, customers and shareholders.

For customers, we offer products and services that support health and financial well‑being, and we make investments that help us keep our financial promises. For our colleagues, we demonstrate employee care by providing opportunities for professional growth, purposeful work, and a supportive and inclusive culture. For our communities, we help to create economic opportunity and prosperity. And for all of our stakeholders, we protect the environment as a way to help improve overall health and well-being.

By deploying the full strength and commitment of our people, our products and services to deliver on our promises to these stakeholders, we drive long-term value for our shareholders.

To help drive progress toward a sustainable future for people and our planet, we have aligned our sustainability strategy with a subset of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, given their relevance to our business.

Operationally, MetLife’s Sustainability Function is part of MetLife’s Corporate Affairs department and is dedicated to sustainability strategy, management and reporting. The Chief Sustainability Officer leads the Sustainability function, coordinating with other senior executives to help drive progress across the organization. MetLife’s Executive Vice President, Head of Corporate Affairs, who reports directly to the CEO, oversees the function.

Additionally, MetLife’s leaders include sustainability in annual performance objectives as part of a shared sustainability goal for MetLife’s Executive Leadership Team. MetLife colleagues are responsible for driving progress toward MetLife’s Next Horizon Strategy, which includes making progress on sustainability commitments. For information regarding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)-specific governance , managed by MetLife’s Global DEI function, see For Our Colleagues.

MetLife’s Sustainability function has responsibilities relating to, among other things:

• Directing and integrating MetLife’s sustainability strategy, target-setting activities, commitments, policies and key performance indicators (KPIs) across the enterprise;
• Summarizing MetLife’s sustainability performance and metrics in an annual report;
• Aligning disclosures to key reporting frameworks, including the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD); and
• Managing and monitoring ESG issues and opportunities relevant to MetLife.

We communicate progress on sustainability year-round using multiple channels including our annual Sustainability Report, annual CDP disclosure and United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) disclosure, social media engagement, news releases posted on MetLife.com and active engagement at both in-person and virtual events, as well as thought leadership. We also disclose sustainability progress and performance via ISS, EcoVadis, DJSI, MSCI and Sustainalytics.

For years, MetLife has applied a diverse range of strategies to reduce emissions generated by its environmental footprint. MetLife is making progress toward reaching Net Zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for its global operations and General Account investment portfolio by 2050 or sooner,¹ which is part of MetLife’s overall business strategy to create long-term value for colleagues, customers, shareholders and communities around the world.

This commitment builds on our longstanding history of environmental stewardship, which entails working toward an inclusive, resilient and thriving environment for present and future generations. We are focusing on MetLife, Inc.’s global owned and leased offices and vehicle fleets, employee business travel, supply chain and assets in MetLife’s General Account investment portfolio, which includes the general accounts of MetLife, Inc.’s wholly owned insurance company subsidiaries.

While reliable methodologies and data sets pertaining to certain emissions are not available at this time, we are committed to improving our data quality and tracking capabilities as standards and methodologies continue to evolve. Emissions calculations are informed by the GHG Protocol and Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), unless otherwise directed by regulators.

MetLife has voluntarily produced and publicly disclosed an inventory of GHG emissions from our operations for many years. Since MetLife announced our 2030 Net Zero interim targets in June 2023, we have made progress and advanced our assessment of methodologies and approaches for expanding calculated financed emissions for the General Account portfolio.

Additional information about MetLife’s General Account investment portfolio is available here.

For more than 150 years, MetLife has been committed to serving our stakeholders as set forth in our Code of Business Ethics. As a responsible investor, MetLife maintains a long-term, value-driven portfolio. MetLife’s responsible investments intend to achieve a market financial return while considering social and/or environmental benefits that help create healthier communities and a more sustainable environment. These investments focus on the core areas of infrastructure, green, municipal bonds, affordable housing and impact investments.

Our latest Sustainability Report provides additional details on responsible investments, and our ESG Scorecard highlights our long history of responsible investing.

MetLife defines impact investments as those investments made with the intention to generate positive, measurable, social and environmental impact alongside a financial return (Global Impact Investing Network definition). This activity includes both MetLife’s General Account and a smaller volume of MetLife Foundation assets. Impact investments are a part of our broader responsible investments categorization.

Learn more about MetLife Foundation's impact investments.

MetLife’s investment portfolio helps finance job creation, business growth and community development around the world. More importantly, MetLife’s investments help us keep the financial promises we have made to our customers. MetLife’s General Account is invested responsibly for the long term. We seek out investments that are diverse, stable, secure and offer competitive, risk-adjusted returns. We evaluate risks, including financially material ESG factors, that we believe have an impact on investment performance. How our sizable and diversified investments are made is integral in helping MetLife live up to our purpose.

MIM, our institutional investment management business, manages most of MetLife’s General Account portfolio, as well as third-party institutional client portfolios. MIM is a well-established global investment manager with specialist investment teams who support MetLife’s General Account investment objectives. ESG integration is an important factor in decision-making.
Being a responsible investor is a means to a long-term, value-driven portfolio.

MIM maintains brochures, policies and disclosures that guide and communicate sustainability efforts within its investment processes, including MIM Sustainable Investment Policy and MIM Stewardship Policy.

MetLife’s General Account investment portfolio is managed in a manner that aligns with the best interests of our business and is also consistent with our purpose. MetLife believes it is a prudent financial decision to de-emphasize certain investments that may not deliver attractive, long-term, risk-adjusted returns. As a result, we made a business decision to place certain limitations on how we construct MetLife’s General Account investment portfolio, including no longer investing in: 1) manufacturers of automatic and/or semi-automatic assault weapons intended for sale to civilians; 2) direct producers of controversial weapons, including cluster munitions, landmines, biological and chemical weapons; 3) manufacturers of finished tobacco, e-cigarette and vaping products; and 4) companies that derive 25% or more of their revenue from thermal coal or hold at least 20% of their oil reserve in oil sands.

Please visit our Sustainability Resource Center for ESG-related statements, policies, definitions and more.

Please see a list of MetLife's recent awards and recognition.