Fund Filters

Fund management company information

Sustainable, Responsible &/or ESG Policy:

The Fund seeks to achieve long-term growth though investment in the shares of global real estate companies and the global real estate investment trust markets with an overlay of sustainable criteria. Sustainable research is undertaken on all real estate equities. This leads to many companies being excluded from the investible universe.

The main criteria for the assessment of sustainability are the risks and opportunities linked with an investment. For example, this may relate to social issues, products and production methods on one hand and the opportunities arising out of environmentally friendly and/or socially favourable products and technologies on the other hand.

The application of exclusion criteria and the best-of-class approach help avoid certain activities and industries with an unfavourable return/risk-profile. The best-in-class-approach helps us to identify companies which are not only lower risk but also better prepared/placed for a future (more sustainable) industry.

Process

The sustainability analyst is responsible for interpreting information on the basis of a comprehensive list of criteria. The results are converted into scores and entered into a proprietary database (Sustainable Value Builder). It is then assessed using a numerical scoring system. The analyst conducts a plausibility check and refines it where required. Finally, there is a peer review. The scoring is then put into the Sarasin Sustainability Matrix®. The SRI criteria include the following:

• Energy-efficiency (e.g. policy & goals, energy consumption/m2)
• Responsible land use, in the face of increasing urbanisation and lack of urban green spaces
• Sustainability of building materials, due to potential for environmental and health damages. Resource-efficient construction & maintenance (energy, water, waste)
• Labour standards: the construction sector is a big employer of low-skilled labour and it needs to implement controls to guarantee minimum labour standards
• Quality of living: real estate planners need to focus on the quality of living for the residents. Architectural concepts related to housing for the elderly / disabled etc.
• Building flexibility in case requirements change in the future
• Good connection to public transport infrastructure.

Resources, Affiliations & Corporate Strategies

Internal Resources

All of our analysts and portfolio managers consider ESG factors when discussing stock ideas and building an investment case. Thus, we consider the entire team an ESG resource.

The stewardship specialists are directly responsible for engagement efforts, and work with the analysts to help them develop their ESG analysis and ratings for stocks.

Whilst the analysts own their ratings, this must be approved by the stewardship team to ensure joint accountability. It is important to note that our stewardship specialists are part of the global equity team, and are involved in team discussions and decisions.

We utilise our own framework and ratings systems to represent our proprietary ESG analysis. This analysis is bottom-up and driven by extensive primary research carried out by our analysts, supplemented with ESG data from MSCI, ISS and other sources.

Affiliations and Memberships

In addition to the UN PRI, we are signatories to the 2020 UK Stewardship Code – and passed the Financial Reporting Council’s assessment for this in September 2021s. Other memberships / initiatives including those listed below, are often the forum in which we work to improve ESG standards and taxonomy:

ENVIRONMENTAL

• IIGCC Paris-aligned accounting and audit working group (Chair)
• IIGCC Net Zero Banking initiative (co-Chair)
• Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative (NZAM)
• Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Reporting
• Climate Action 100+
• “Say on Climate” Initiative
• Carbon Accounting Project (PRI)
• Ellen MacArthur Foundation Plastics Initiative
• Plastic Solutions Investor Alliance (PSIA)
• Finance for Biodiversity Initiative (F4B)

SOCIAL

• 30% Club
• Find It, Fix It, Prevent It initiative (FFP) – Modern Slavery
• Workforce Disclosure Initiative (WDI)
• International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry
• Investor Statement of Solidarity to Address Systemic Racism and Call to Action
• World Benchmarking Alliance Digital Inclusion Collective Impact Coalition

GOVERNANCE

• International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN)
• UK Corporate Reporting and Auditing Group (CRAG)
• Advisory Group for International Audit & Assurance Standards Board

We also support The Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF).

Many of these commitments provide us with a network of peers and supporters for key ESG related issues. It is important for us to remain engaged with group advocacy work, collaborative endeavours, such as engagements, but also to keep aware of best practice.

Often, we find these networks to be useful sources of data and information either on a broad ESG related issue or on company specific metrics that may not be found in other sources.

While the majority of our company engagements are pursued on our own, as outlined in later responses, we will collaborate with other investors where we are seeking to escalate due to resistance from the board or executives. Often having a larger shareholding united on a matter of concern can be more impactful. Wherever we explore collaboration, we ensure the steps we take are consistent with local laws and regulations. In certain cases, these collaborations link into broader initiatives that we support, such as ICCR Covid-19 engagement; the Workforce Disclosure Initiative; the Ellen MacArthur global commitment on recycling; or Climate Action 100+.

Dialshifter

This fund is helping to ‘shift the dial from brown to green’ by…

…through our belief that the most crucial way in which we as a firm can have an impact on sustainability is through our stewardship work with investee companies. Responsible investment has the power to deliver enduring value to clients in a way that benefits society. Equally, wealth creation at society’s expense is likely to be ephemeral.

Our approach has three tenets:

• A robust, thematic, global investment process focused on long-term value drivers
• Active engagement with companies and considered voting to drive positive change
• Policy outreach where we believe we can play a positive role in shaping markets and regulation

Our organisation is helping to support the Paris Climate Agreement and the Race to Net Zero by…

… pressing investee companies to align with the Paris climate goals: 

• Proactive engagement – we initiate and support dialogue with company boards to make clear our expectation for companies to publish Paris-aligned strategies, including measurable mid-term targets 
• Voting – we oppose director appointments where individuals are blocking the implementation of a Paris-aligned strategy. We will vote against auditors where we believe the Annual Report and Accounts fail to report material climate risks
• Divestment – we sell a company’s shares where we believe capital is at risk and leadership is failing to respond appropriately.

We also promote policy through policy outreach and public statements.