As an asset manager our aim is to meet our clients’ financial objectives in a way that we believe aligns with their values and furthers their mission.
We believe we have a duty to go beyond the boundaries of traditional investor engagement and work with the industry to address systemic risks that threaten communities, the environment and ultimately investment markets.
We achieve this through the following principles:
Act
We act as an agent for ‘change’ because we believe investment markets can only ever be as healthy as the environment and communities that support them.
We do this by:
- using our ownership rights to improve the sustainability of the assets in which we invest
- bringing investors together to address systemic risks that have not received the attention that they require
- seeking to be a catalyst for change in the investment industry.
By helping to accelerate progress in meeting the major sustainability challenges that the world faces, we can limit risks before they negatively affect the performance of our clients’ assets and the functioning of society.
We have a history of pioneering initiatives that have spurred the industry into collective action.
Assess
We assess environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards because we believe that a combination of legislation, regulation and changing societal preferences will negatively impact the most unsustainable business models.
We avoid investing in companies that have uncompensated, unwanted, unwarranted and unmitigated ESG risks as evidenced by:
- poor management and weak corporate governance
- having an unacceptable social and environmental impact
- not demonstrating a willingness to improve through investor engagement.
This helps us avoid investments that we anticipate will underperform and, as the market has a poor record of pricing these risks, deliver consistent long-term risk-adjusted returns to our clients.
Integrating ESG considerations into investment processes can help mitigate risk and has the potential to improve long-term financial outcomes.
Align
As we are the guardians and not owners of the assets we manage, we aim to invest in a way that we believe aligns with our clients. We have a responsibility to:
- ensure that our portfolios are aligned with our clients’ objectives, values and beliefs
- report on the outcomes of all our work
- be transparent about everything we do on our clients’ behalf.
By investing in a way that we believe is aligned with our clients we are better able to meet their objectives and offer more than a financial return.
