Stewardship
Stewardship is where we actively use our rights as asset holders to influence organisations where we invest and, ultimately, safeguard good returns on those assets. As well as voting, it involves engaging directly with companies and the industry at large on strategy, performance, operations and even culture and values.
ESG
An ESG focus helps us understand more about how the companies we invest in work, and the challenges they face. In turn, we can decide whether or not they are a good long-term investment, managing our risk and enabling better returns.
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Net Zero
Climate change is one of the biggest risk factors affecting our long-term investments. This is why we have adopted our Net Zero ambition to halve greenhouse gas emission and reach net zero carbon by 2050 or sooner.
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We use our influence to engage fund managers and companies with responsible investment. This involves meeting certain industry standards and holding others to those standards.
For example, we have signed up to both the UK Stewardship Code, and the Principles of Responsible Investment (or PRI).
The UK Stewardship Code promotes better engagement between investors and companies to provide the best possible results for shareholders. As a result, ESG standards are a crucial feature of its principles. For example, the first of these states clearly that long-term value for investors leads to sustainable benefits for the economy, the environment and society.
Please find our latest Stewardship Code submission here.
The PRI is globally recognised as the good practice measure in this area. It provides guidance for investment decision-making in line with ESG issues, and a framework to help us keep track of our actions, record UKRF activities each year and continue to progress. The UKRF has been part of this network since 2015.
Please read more about the PRI here
We have appointed a firm that specialises in stewardship services, EOS at Federated Hermes, to carry out this kind of engagement on our behalf as part of a collective group of investors – in particular to have specific discussions with certain companies, and vote in line with our policies in relevant meetings. Take a look at our Governance page for more details about their activities.
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