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## Sustainability 

AEGON believes it makes a valuable contribution to the wider community both as a provider of long-term financial products and services and as a responsible employer and investor. AEGON’s approach to sustainability is based on the responsible management of the company’s resources – financial, human or material – ensuring AEGON is able to meet long-term obligations to its customers and other stakeholders. 

## AEGON’s stakeholders 

As regards sustainability, AEGON has four main stakeholder groups besides the company’s shareholders. AEGON has framed a business ambition for each group, and in each case the company is implementing a number of initiatives to help achieve that ambition by 2015. 

■ Customers.  Business ambition: to become the most recommended financial services company. Measures: company-wide principles for market conduct, company-wide loyalty programs and rolling out a system for measuring customer satisfaction. 

■ Employees.  Business ambition: to become the most preferred company by current and prospective employees. Measures: a more global approach to human resources, based on talent and performance management, launch of global survey to measure employee engagement. 

■  Business partners.  Business ambition: to become the most preferred partner. Measure: extend principles of market conduct to partnerships globally. 

■  Wider community.  Business ambition: to become the most respected and trusted fi nancial services company for society. Measures: global responsible investment policy, more targeted approach to corporate donations, company-wide program to manage resources more effectively. 

AEGON believes these initiatives will further strengthen confidence in the company, and help create long-term value for all shareholders and investors. 

## AEGON’s sustainability reporting 

AEGON’s annual Stakeholder Review helps to determine which issues are material to the company’s businesses, performance and strategy. The findings are included in an annual Sustainability – Report to Stakeholders, which charts the significance both to AEGON and its stakeholders of various economic, business and social issues. 

Parts of AEGON’s Sustainability 2010 - Report to Stakeholders are audited by Ernst & Young, the company’s external auditor. 

## International commitments 

As part of its approach to sustainability, AEGON has a number of international commitments: 

■ AEGON is a signatory to the Carbon Disclosure Project, which encourages companies to be open about their greenhouse gas emissions. 

■ AEGON Asset Management is also a signatory to the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investment and, in the United Kingdom, the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, which aims to strengthen governance in the international oil, gas and minerals sector. AEGON supports the Global Reporting Initiative, which develops accepted and comparable standards for sustainability reporting. 

■ AEGON also upholds the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subscribes to the core standards of the International Labor Organization and the principles on human rights and labor standards contained in the UN Global Compact. 

In addition, AEGON is listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability World and European indexes for the insurance industry, as well as the FTSE4Good, indexes which measure the performance of leading companies against recognized sustainability standards. AEGON was ranked among the twenty highest performing companies in the Netherlands in the Dutch government’s 2010 Transparency Benchmark. 

## Governance 

In October 2010, AEGON appointed Mr. Marc van Weede as its first global head of Sustainability. In addition, each of AEGON’s country and business units has assigned responsibility for sustainability to a senior manager, who oversees the implementation of local policies and initiatives. Questions of strategy and policy in this area are subject to approval by AEGON’s Executive and Management Boards. The company’s Supervisory Board also plays a key role in helping monitor and developing overall strategy. 

For more details on AEGON’s approach to sustainability, please see the Sustainability 2010 – Report to Stakeholders, available online. 

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