As at: 31/12/23

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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.

Process

Resources, Affiliations & Corporate Strategies

ESG integration is a strategic priority for Aberdeen Standard Investments and is actively supported and promoted by senior executives, from our CEO downwards. In recognition of the importance of ESG, Euan Stirling, Global Head of Stewardship and ESG Investment, reports directly to Rod Paris, Chief Investment Officer, and Euan regularly attends the Investment Management Committee, chaired by the CIO. Reporting to Euan is the ESG leadership team, which focuses on maximising the quality and value of ESG engagement, research and analysis across all asset classes.

Our ESG Investment Team is a centralised resource of 22 people that is dedicated to ESG analysis and engagement and available to all asset classes. The team has a number of functions including: quality assurance and consistency of the ESG regional analysts’ research and analysis, the consideration of governance issues, highlighting themes and emerging risks in ESG, consultation and support to all of ASI’s asset classes on ESG issues, and reflection and promotion of ASI’s positions on key ESG issues externally.

In addition, we have dedicated ESG analysts and ESG expertise embedded within asset-class teams to ensure the greatest integration of ESG factors within investment decisions, who sit on the regional equity, real estate and fixed income desks.

Furthermore, our proxy voting team, based in Edinburgh, is also part of the ESG Investment Team and manages ASI’s proxy voting approach, which is an integral part of our overall stewardship function.

The central team and asset specific ESG investment analysts are listed below:

Core team members:

• Euan Stirling: Head of Stewardship and ESG Investment (Edinburgh), (18 years at Firm, 23 years in Industry)
• Amanda Young: Global Head of Responsible Investment (Edinburgh), (5 Years at Firm, 21 years in Industry)
• Jamie Govan: Senior Manager ESG – Clients (Edinburgh), (11 years at Firm, 11 years in Industry)
• Katy Grant: Senior Manager ESG Investment - Research (Edinburgh), (7 years, at Firm, 7 years in Industry)
• Bill Hartnett: Stewardship Director (London), (<1 year at Firm, 24 years in Industry)
• Andrew Mason: Senior Manager – Stewardship (Edinburgh), (6 years at Firm, 13 years in Industry)
• Elizabeth Meyer: ESG Investment Analyst (Edinburgh), (5 years at Firm, 5 years in Industry)
• Eva Cairns: Senior ESG Investment Analyst (Edinburgh), (8 years at Firm, 13 years in Industry)
• Claire Leighton: ESG Investment Analyst (Edinburgh), (8 years at Firm, 14 years in Industry)
• Ziggy You: ESG Investment Analyst (Edinburgh), (<1 year at Firm, 6 years in Industry)
• Stuart Riddick: ESG Investment Analyst (Edinburgh), (<1 year at Firm, <1 year in Industry)
• Danielle Welsh-Rose: ESG Investment Director – APAC (Edinburgh), (<1 year in Firm, 18 years in Industry)
• Mike Everett: Stewardship Director Policy & Voting (Edinburgh), (21 years at Firm, 33 years in Industry)
• Alison Kennedy: Stewardship Director (Edinburgh), (13 years at Firm, 34 years in Industry)
• Rachel Rotheram: ESG Investment Analyst (Edinburgh), (<1 year at Firm, 1 year in Industry)
• Ben Holden: ESG Investment Analyst (Edinburgh), (3 years at Firm, 3 Years in Industry)
• Douglas Wilson: Senior Manager – Stewardship (Edinburgh), (19 years at Firm, 26 years in Industry)
• Joanna Sulc: Senior Manager - Stewardship (Edinburgh), (3 years at Firm, 15 years in Industry)
• Nick Duncan: Senior Manager - Stewardship (Edinburgh) (3 years at Firm, 21 years in Industry)
• Zander Reid: Strategic Business Development Manager (Edinburgh), (8 years at Firm, 8 years in Industry)
• Kathleen Dewandeleer: Stewardship Manager (Edinburgh), (<1 year at Firm, 27 years in Industry)
• Eilidh Duncan: Sustainable Investment Product Analyst (Edinburgh),(<1 year at Firm, 1 year in Industry)

Fixed Income resource

Samantha Lamb, Head of ESG Fixed Income, is responsible for developing and ensuring holistic application of ESG factors to individual company research to allow for greater integration with the centralised ESG function, and support the continued development of ESG products. Samantha is supported by an ESG network of “ESG champions”, which includes the heads of research, portfolio managers, and analysts with a responsibility to further promote ESG considerations and integration in the investment process.

• Samantha Lamb : Head of ESG, Fixed Income (London), (11 years at Firm, 16 years in Industry)
• Nicholas Kordowski: Head of Non-Financials Research (Edinburgh), (9 years at Firm, 9 years in Industry)
• Andrew Fraser: Head of Financials Research (Edinburgh), (10 years at Firm, 39 years in Industry)
• George Westervelt: Head of US HY Research (Boston), (9 years at Firm, 20 years in Industry)
• Julien Martin: Head of Euro HY Research (London), (5 years at Firm, 13 years in Industry)
• Paul Lukaszewski: Head of Asian Corporate Debt & Emerging Market Credit Research (Singapore), (7 years at Firm, 18 years in Industry)
• Matthew Kence: Investment Director (Boston), ( 16 years at Firm), 16 years in Industry)
• Josef Helmes: Investment Director (Edinburgh), (8 years at Firm, 15 years in Industry)
• Mark Munro: Investment Director (Edinburgh), ( 6 years at Firm, 6 years in Industry)
• Matthew Macreadie: Investment Director (Sydney), (5 years at Firm, 12 years in Industry)
• Natalia Glekel: Investment Manager (Boston), (6 years at Firm, 11 years in Industry)
• Samuel Bevan: Investment Manager (London), (7 years at Firm, 7 years in Industry)
• Henry Loh: Investment Manager (Singapore), (5 years at Firm, 5 years in Industry)
• Amy Green: Investment Manager (Sydney), (7 years at Firm, 7 years in Industry)
• Emilia Matei: Investment Analyst (London), (3 years at Firm, 3 years in Industry)
• Petra Daroczi: Investment Analyst – ESG (Singapore), (1 years at Firm, 6 years in Industry)
• Khashayar Lotfizadeh: Global Head of Quantitative Analytics (London), (12 years at Firm, 12 years in Industry)

Source: Aberdeen Standard Investments, 31 May 2020

*includes continuous service

Literature

• Fund overview & literature (including factsheet)
• Pension Fund factsheet

Last amended: 06/03/24 12:07