Policy
While we recognise the personal nature of everyone’s ethics, we aim to ensure that the funds are reflective of the wider views of those who invest in them. We regularly review the criteria, both positive and negative, through customer surveys and consultations to ensure they remain relevant and industry leading. This approach is overseen by the Ethical Funds Advisory Group, consisting of both independent external members and key members of staff.
Positive Criteria
Using positive criteria, we allocate the majority of the funds to companies or issuers that are involved in activities that benefit society and the environment. We use the UN Global Compact (www.unglobalcompact.org) to define the four areas where we seek to invest in companies with positive business practices and services.
Corporate Governance
The funds adopt a formal corporate governance policy. We actively vote at the AGMs of the companies held in the funds. Due consideration is given to issues such as board independence, excessive remuneration and audit issues. Voting is conducted within the terms of the Ethical Funds Sustainability Approach and in the best of interests of the investors in the funds. In addition, the funds will adopt a policy of voting:
- against the Chair of any company where the board fails to have set policy, have oversight or take responsibility for environmental, social, health & safety and human rights issues
- against members of any health, safety and environment committee where insufficient oversight has resulted in poor performance in these areas.
Engagement
The funds pursue an active engagement policy. We engage with companies on a range of environmental, social and governance issues with the aim that good corporate behaviour is adopted by the companies in which the funds invest. Where engagement proves ineffective and concerns remain over corporate behaviour
and oversight of these issues, we will disinvest from a company. It is our ambition that this active engagement will challenge and encourage companies in which the funds invest to improve their environmental, social and governance performance and practices.
Negative criteria
We also use negative criteria to avoid investing in companies involved in certain industries and activities that our customers are concerned with. We will avoid investment in companies involved in the activities listed below:
- Alcohol production: companies that derive 10% or more of revenue from alcohol production.
- Animal testing: companies that manufacture products or ingredients that have been tested on animals.
- Animal husbandry: companies with significant exposure to activities which may lead to poor animal husbandry, such as intensive or factory farming, where there is evidence of poor practices or that do not respect the five freedoms (freedom from hunger and thirst; from discomfort; from pain, injury and disease; to express normal behaviour; from fear and distress).
- Environmental protection: companies that –
- fail to recognise the environmental responsibilities associated with their activities
- have a significant or unmitigated harmful effect on the environment or its inhabitants
- are involved in highly carbon intensive activities or have high greenhouse gas emissions and have failed to show commitment to address climate change issues
- have significant carbon intensive mining operations, such as in coal or tar-sands
- manufacture chemicals of concern (such as ozone depleting chemicals and pesticides) without stringent policies, processes and practices to mitigate the harmful impact of their processes and products
- have a business model based on the production of fossil fuels (such as oil & gas exploration and production companies)
- are involved in GMOs for agricultural crop or livestock production
- have operations that produce, manufacture or use commodities (such as cotton, timber, soya, palm oil or cattle) without sufficient processes in place to ensure their activities do not contribute to significant or unmitigated deforestation, significant biodiversity loss, or harm to the environment or communities.
- Employment: companies that have a harmful effect on their employees. This will include, but is not limited to, companies that –
- use child or forced labour
- demonstrate a lack of regard for their employees’ health & safety
- have been linked to bad employment practices, such as modern slavery, lack of collective bargaining, not paying the minimum wage, or other abuses of employees.
- Fur: companies that manufacture or sell fur products that are not a by-product of the meat industry (e.g. wool or leather).
- Gambling: companies that derive 10% or more revenue from involvement in gambling.
- Human rights: companies that –
- operate in any country with a poor record of human rights and fail to have mechanisms in place to uphold human rights
- face continued accusations of human rights abuses, no matter where they operate
- have been involved in controversial projects that have been linked to human rights abuses
- are deemed to be supporting controversial regimes.
- Marketing breast milk substitutes: companies that market breast milk substitutes and have failed to adopt industry-leading marketing practices (such as those defined under the World Health Organisation’s International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes).
- Nuclear: companies involved in the mining of uranium, and operators and owners of nuclear power stations, deriving more than 5% revenue from nuclear power generation.
- Poor business practices: companies with evidence of poor business practices that cause harm to society or their employees that have not already been captured under other criteria (such as predatory lending and high interest rate lenders which have demonstrated poor business practices).
- Pornography: companies that derive 3% or more revenue from adult entertainment services, including publishing and distributing pornographic magazines or newspapers, or violent video games.
- Tobacco: companies that produce tobacco products or grow or process raw tobacco leaves. Equally, companies that derive more than 20% of revenue from supplying products essential to the tobacco industry.
- UN Global Compact: companies that have failed one or more of the ten principles of the UN Global Compact (www.unglobalcompact.org)
- Weapons: companies that manufacture or sell whole or strategic parts of weapons systems and weapons platforms.
- Equally, companies that derive more than 20% of revenue from non-offensive military sales, such as vehicles or support to the military.
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Resources, Affiliations & Corporate Strategies
Investments Vector Sustainability Group:
- Amanda Young - Chief Sustainability Officer (8 years at Firm, 25 years in Industry)
- Eva Cairns - Head of Sustainability Insights & Climate Strategy (11 years at Firm, 16 years in Industry)
- Anna Moss - Senior Sustainability Analyst (12 years at Firm, 12 years in Industry)
- Ann Meoni - Senior Sustainability Analyst (8 years at Firm, 8 years in Industry)
- Elizabeth (Meyer) Chiweshenga - Senior Sustainability Analyst (9 years at Firm, 9 years in Industry)
- Nick Gaskell - Sustainability Analyst (Less than a year at firm, 7 years in Industry)
- Ziggy You - Sustainability Analyst (3 years at Firm, 3 years in Industry)
- Aidan Maloney - Graduate Business Analyst (Less than a year at Firm, less than a year in Industry)
- Dan Grandage - Head of Sustainable Investments (8 years at firm, 8 years in Industry)
- Eilidh Duncan - Senior Sustainability Manager (2 years at firm, 4 years in Industry)
- Katy Grant - Senior Sustainability Manager (10 years at Firm, 10 years in Industry)
- Rachel Rotheram - Sustainability Analyst (4 years at firm, 4 years in Industry)
- Yolanda Yang - ESG BI Analyst (Less than a year at firm, 1 year in Industry)
- Maka Indorbaeva - Graduate Business Analyst (Less than a year at Firm, less than a year in Industry)
- Andrew Mason - Head of Active Ownership (10 years at firm, 17 years in Industry)
- Douglas Wilson - Senior Sustainability Manager (22 years at firm, 25 years in Industry)
- Joanna Sulc - Senior Sustainability Manager (7 years at Firm, 20 years in Industry)
- Kathleen Dewandeleer - Senior Sustainability Manager (3 years at firm, 30 years in Industry)
- Nick Duncan - Senior Sustainability Manager (7 years at Firm, 25 years in Industry)
- Claire Leighton - Sustainability Manager (12 years at Firm, 12 years in Industry)
- Stuart Riddick - Sustainability Manager (3 years at Firm, 3 years in Industry)
- Katie Mint - Sustainability Support (2 years at Firm, 2 years in Industry)
- Danielle Welsh-Rose - Head of Sustainability Investment Specialists & APAC Sustainability (2 years at Firm, 20 years in Industry)
- Jamie Govan - Sustainability Director (14 years at Firm, 14 years in Industry)
- Neil Murdoch - Senior Sustainability Specialist (6 years at Firm, 16 years in Industry)
- Nicola Skrastin - Sustainability Specialist (5 years at Firm, 5 years in Industry)
- Qianlin Li - Sustainability Specialist (Less than a year at Firm, 10 years in Industry)
- Sylvain Augoyard - Sustainability Manager - APAC (Less than a year at Firm, 13 years in Industry)
- Daniel Bowie-MacDonald - Sustainability Investment Specialist (9 years at Firm, 10 years in Industry)
- Sheela Veerappan - Sustainability Investment Specialist - APAC (Less than a year at Firm, 18 years in Industry)
- Fionna Ross -Sustainability Investment Specialist & Head of Sustainability Institute - Americas (14 years at Firm, 14 years in Industry)
- Toby Grubb - Sustainability Support (1 year at Firm, 1 year in Industry)
Equity:
- Sarah Norris - Head of ESG - Equities (11 years at Firm, 12 years in Industry)
- David Smith - Senior Investment Director (10 years at Firm, 16 years in Industry)
- Jerry Goh - Investment Manager (7 years at Firm, 7 years in Industry)
- Daniel Ng - Investment Manager (5 years at Firm, 5 years in Industry)
- Andrew Risk - UK Equity ESG Analyst (Less than a year at Firm, 9 years in Industry)
- Fraser Harle - Investment Analyst (6 years at Firm, 7 years in Industry)
- Tzoulianna Leventi - ESG Analyst and Investment Analyst (4 years at Firm, 4 years in Industry)
- Jonny Salvage - ESG Analyst - European Equities (Less than a year at Firm, 4 years in Industry)
Multi-Asset:
- Craig MacKenzie - Head of SAA Research (11 years at Firm, 25 years in Industry)
- Catie Wearmouth - ESG Investment Director – Multi Asset Solutions (1 year at Firm, 23 years in Industry)
- Fiona Ritchie - ESG Investment Manager (10 years at Firm, 35 years in Industry)
Fixed Income:
- Marianne Zangerl - Head of ESG Fixed Income (7 years at Firm, 13 years in Industry)
- Nicholas Kordowski - Head of Non-Financials Research (12 years at Firm, 18 years in Industry)
- Andrew Fraser - Head of Financials Research (13 years at Firm, 31 years in Industry)
- George Westervelt - Head of US HY Research (13 years at Firm, 23 years in Industry)
- Julien Martin - Head of Euro HY Research (9 years at Firm, 17 years in Industry)Paul Lukaszewski - Head of Asian Corporate Debt & Emerging Market Credit Research (11 years at Firm, 21 years in Industry)
- Matthew Kence - Investment Director (12 years at Firm, 19 years in Industry)
- Josef Helmes - Investment Director (10 years at Firm, 21 years in Industry)
- Mark Munro - Investment Director (9 years at Firm, 16 years in Industry)
- Samuel Bevan - Investment Manager (10 years at Firm, 10 years in Industry)
- Henry Loh - Investment Manager (8 years at Firm, 8 years in Industry)
- Emilia Matei - Investment Analyst (7 years at Firm, 7 years in Industry)
- Kate McGrath - ESG Analyst - Fixed Income (3 years at Firm, 3 years in Industry)
- Scott McQuiston - ESG Analyst - Fixed Income (2 years at Firm, 2 years in Industry)
- Khashayar Lotfizadeh - Global Head of Quantitative Analytics (8 years at Firm, 8 years in Industry)
- Samuel Grantham - Investment Director (9 years at Firm, 9 years in Industry)
- Thomas Leys - Investment Director (9 years at Firm, 10 years in Industry)
- Jonathan Mondillo - Head of Municipals (4 years at Firm, 17 years in Industry)
- Nicole Lim - Investment Analyst (1 year at Firm, 5 years in Industry)
- Curt Starer - Investment Director (15 years at Firm, 22 years in Industry)
- Janaka Nanayakkara - Investment Director (7 years at Firm, 15 years in Industry)
- Albane Poulin - Head of European Private Placements (7 years at Firm, 10 years in Industry)
- Eliza Uphadya - Lending Manager (6 years at Firm 6 years in Industry)
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