Thematic engagement

We launched our thematic social engagement approach in 2022. Within our three main themes of human capital, human rights and safety and quality, we engage with investee companies on five sub-topics. We engage with companies where social issues are material to safeguarding or enhancing the financial value of the investee.

Human capital

The focus of our engagement is on businesses providing and promoting decent work. This includes a focus on workforce composition and labor rights. Through engagement, we encourage global companies to ensure appropriate workforce composition, make positive change and commit to improve policies, practices and disclosures where needed.

Human rights

Our human rights engagement focuses on successful implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), which provides guidance on how to identify, remediate, prevent and mitigate human rights issues.

Safety and quality

The focus of our health engagement is on products and services that contribute to a healthier society. In our engagements we aim for investee companies to improve their nutrition policies, practices and publicly disclose, as evidenced by the results of their assessment against the Access to Nutrition Index (ATNI) framework.

We launched our first thematic environmental engagement on climate change in 2018. We are also now engaging with investee companies on natural capital. In both cases, we interact with other investors, where we believe this brings further value to our engagements.

Climate change

We engage with the world's most emission intensive companies, encouraging and assisting them in adopting transition plans and achieving emission reductions aligned with a net-zero pathway. This assessment is guided by market-leading standards along with various sector-specific standards. We use our detailed assessments to inform our evidence-based engagements with companies and provide valuable company and sector-level insights to our investment teams.

Natural capital

We believe biodiversity loss and degradation pose significant financial risks. Through our planet program, we are committed to engaging issuers on biodiversity loss and restoring natural ecosystems. Our engagement on natural capital risks and opportunities focuses on three areas: forests, water, and the climate-biodiversity nexus.

We believe that strong governance drives corporate behavior and can lead to effective policies and business practices regarding environmental, social and governance issues. Given our investment teams' decades-long commitment to corporate governance, we understand that such matters, when managed well, may lead to both better corporate performance and improved shareholder value over the long term.