Responsible stewardship for positive change
Stewardship is the responsible allocation, management and oversight of capital to create long-term value for clients and beneficiaries, leading to sustainable benefits for the economy, the environment and society. We are committed to our stewardship responsibilities: active engagement with the companies in which we invest, exercising our voice as a long-term investor in industry participation and voting on behalf of our clients at company meetings. We use our influence to drive positive corporate change and industry developments that benefit our clients and the communities we serve.
Focusing on key priorities
We have identified six main investment stewardship priorities that we believe are the environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues that pose the most significant long-term risks and opportunities to our investments. Together with related sub-themes, these priorities provide a structured and targeted framework for engagement with the companies in which we invest.
Governance
Companies that get their governance right tend to get other sustainability issues right.
Strategy alignment with the long term
We believe long-term thinking leads to sustainable business models.
Human capital management
Effective management of human capital is critical to an engaged and productive workforce.
Stakeholder engagement
Generating sustainable returns requires managing the interests of suppliers, customers and communities.
Natural capital and ecosystems
The prospects of business hinge on the future of nature.
Research-powered engagement
Engagement with the companies and other security issuers in which we invest is integral to our investment processes across asset classes. Research into companies, economic drivers and ESG themes drives our engagement and enables us to intervene before risks materialise and opportunities are missed. Our engagement approach is founded on four building blocks.
Intentionality
We are determined to act in the best interests of our clients by encouraging the companies we invest in to be focused on responsible allocation of capital and long-term value creation.
Materiality
We strive to understand how sustainabilty factors are financially significant to companies over time, acknowledging differences in the regions, cultures and organisations in which we invest.
Additionality
We focus on strategic issues that are most urgently in need of our involvement to alter the status quo.
Transparency
We are clear about the stewardship work we do and take steps to be transparent to our stakeholders as we expect our investee companies to be to their own.
Engagement in 2021
Engagement activity statistics for 2021
Engagement success case studies
Proxy voting
Proxy voting is one of the ways asset managers can influence company behaviour. Company shareholders have the right to vote at annual and other meetings. In our mutual funds, we use these voting rights on behalf of our clients.
We vote shares held in our clients’ portfolios based on our reasonable judgement of what will best serve the long-term interests of our clients, in accordance with the relevant legal standards. We have comprehensive proxy voting policies and guidelines in each region, consistent with law and expectations of good governance practices in these different locations.
Proxy voting statistics for 2021
Policies and commitments
Further reading
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