Has policies that consider (environmental and social) sustainability issues. Strategies vary but are likely to consider environmental issues like climate change, carbon emissions, biodiversity loss, resource management, environmental impacts; and social issues like equal opportunities, human rights, labour standards, diversity and adherence to internationally recognised codes. See individual entry information.

Has policies which relate to environmental issues. These will typically set out their stance on issues such as pollution, climate change, resource management, biodiversity loss, carbon emissions, plastics and/or additional environmental impacts. Strategies vary.

Has policies (documented strategies that explain their position) on climate change related issues such as greenhouse gas/carbon emissions, net zero, transitioning to lower carbon. Strategies vary.

Avoid investment in major coal, oil and/or gas (extraction) companies. Strategies vary.

Avoid companies involved in fracking and tar sands - which are widely regarded as controversial methods of oil and gas extraction. Strategies vary.

Avoid investing in companies / assets with coal, oil and gas reserves. See individual entry information for further details.

Encourage the transition to lower carbon activities through asset selection and / or responsible ownership activity.

Excludes companies and other assets with direct involvement in fossil fuel exploration (eg coal, oil and gas companies)

Excludes companies / assets with indirect involvement in fossil fuel exploration. This may relate to providers of finance and / or insurance and providers of other services.

Will only invest in companies that report greenhouse gas emissions in line with this international reporting framework. See https://www.fsb-tcfd.org/ https ://www.ifrs.org/sustainability/tcfd/

Requires all, or most of, the assets they invest in to have a ‘net zero action plan’ - describing how they will reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Aims to invest in assets with high social values - this may include strong human rights, labour standards and equal opportunities or safety related practices.

Has a policy that explains their position on which mining companies they may or may not invest in. Typically this may mean only investing in assets with high environmental and social standards. This is a growing concern given demand for rare earth metals eg lithium, cobalt.

All mining companies excluded

Companies are excluded if they are involved in any aspect of the production chain for tobacco products, including cigarettes, vaping, e-cigarettes, chewing tobacco and cigars.

Excludes companies which make controversial weapons such as landmines, cluster munitions and chemical weapons.

Avoids companies that manufacture weapons intended specifically for military use. Strategies vary - may or may not include non-strategic military products.

Has a written civilian firearms exclusion policy - meaning that they will not invest in companies that make (or perhaps also sell) handguns made for non-military users.

Avoids companies that produce alcohol. Strategies vary; some may allow a small proportion of revenue to come from this area.

Avoids companies with significant involvement in the gambling industry. Some may allow a small proportion of revenues to come from this area.

Avoids companies that derive significant income from pornography and related areas. Strategies vary.

Has a policy which excludes assets with involvement in Modern Slavery

Excludes financial services companies with widely criticised, aggressive lending practices where interest rates are typically very high, (eg ‘doorstep lending’)

Has policies that relate to corporate governance issues such as board structure, executive remuneration, bribery and/or corporate corruption. These funds will typically avoid companies with poor practices. Strategies vary.

Avoids investing in companies with poor governance practices.(e.g. board structure, management practices etc.) Views may however vary on what counts as 'poor' practices - and funds may not immediately divest as they may prefer to work to encourage higher standards.

Exclude companies that are subject to United Nations sanctions. See eg https://main.un.org/securitycouncil/en/content/un-sc-consolidated-list

Encourage the companies they invest in to have more diverse board structures (e.g. more women on boards)

Aim to encourage higher ESG standards through responsible ownership / stewardship / engagement /voting activity

Find fund / asset managers that factor in 'environmental, social and governance' issues as part of their investment decision making process. A focus on 'ESG' typically means a fund is carrying out additional research to help reduce ESG related risks. It does not necessarily mean a focus on sustainability. Strategies vary. See fund literature.

Invests more than half of their money into what are commonly regarded as 'large companies'. This will typically mean that the market capitalisation (or value) of the companies they hold is in excess of £5 to £10 billion.

Invests mainly in larger companies / assets. (e.g. over circa £5-£10bn)

Has principle 'ethical approach' to avoid companies by using negative screening criteria. Strategies vary.

Invests in assets which have an ESG strategy (which is typically focused on avoiding companies that pose environmental, social or governance related risks) together with additional criteria such as positive and/or negative screens, themes and stewardship strategies.

Focuses on the careful management of environmental, social and governance (ESG) related risks - typically by avoiding or being underweight in companies seen as posing major risks in these areas (i.e. not necessarily by using themes, exclusions etc).

Publish explanations of their ethical, social and/or environmental policies online (i.e. investment decision making strategies/ buy/sell &/or asset management strategies).

Does not use stock lending for performance or risk purposes.

Designed to meet the needs of individual investors with an interest in sustainability issues.

Designed for clients who care about ethical and values-based issues, often alongside sustainability issues also.

Has attributes that commonly suit the aims of investors of faith - although they may not be specifically marketed as being only for religious investors. Strategies vary (as do investor aims).

Available via a tax efficient ISA product wrapper.

Find options classified under Article 8 of the EU’s SFDR (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Requirements). Article 8 of the SFDR is a set of requirements that apply to financial products that 'promote' environmental or social characteristics together with high governance. These rules do not currently apply to UK products so many managers may leave this field blank.

Find fund / asset management companies that are smaller or specialise in particular areas - notably, ideally ESG related. Strategies vary.

Finds fund / asset management companies that have a published company wide stewardship, engagement and / or responsible ownership policy or strategy that covers all investments. Stewardship typically involves encouraging higher ESG standards through voting and dialogue.

Find fund / asset management companies that actively encourage higher 'environmental, social and governance' and / or 'sustainable and responsible investment' practices across investee companies - typically where the aim is to encourage positive change that is aligned with the best interests of investors. Strategies vary. See additional information and options.

Find fund / asset managers that vote all* the shares they own at Annual General Meetings and Extraordinary General Meetings. A commitment to voting shares is a key indicator of 'responsible share ownership' demonstrating their support for or disagreement with management policy. (*situations can legitimately, occasionally occur where voting proves impossible, but in principle all shares should be voted.)

Find options run by managers that apply Responsible ownership or 'Stewardship' policies to all or most of their investment assets. This means active involvement (e.g. voting, dialogue) with the companies across all or most funds, products and services.

Find fund / asset management companies that consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues when deciding whether or not to invest in a company for all / almost all of their funds and other assets. This is increasingly seen as part of sound risk management.

Finds organisations / fund managers that have an in-house (company wide) diversity improvement programme - meaning that they are working to ensure that within their own businesses they employ people from diverse backgrounds - often typically focused on ethnicity and/or sex.

Find fund / asset management companies that encourage the companies they invest in to have strong diversity, race, gender and other equality policies across all assets held, not simply screened or themed SRI/ESG funds. (ie Asset Management company wide).

Fund management entity offers unstructured intermediary training on sustainable investment (ie for financial advisers and wealth managers)

Find fund / asset management companies that have signed up to the UN backed 'Principles of Responsible Investment'.

Fund management entity is a member of the Investment Association https://www.theia.org/

Find fund / asset management companies that employ people to steer and support fund managers in voting shares at company AGM's and EGMs in ways that are consistent with encouraging higher ESG/sustainability standards.

Find fund / asset management companies that makes use of expert external research companies. This can help deliver specialist expertise and means resources are pooled with other investors.

Finds organisations / fund managers that have one or more ESG/sustainability experts on all investment teams or 'desks' (all asset types)

Finds organisations / fund managers that have an A+ PRI rating - meaning they are highly rated according to the 'Principles of Responsible Investment'

Find fund / asset managers that are signatories to the FRC UK Stewardship Code, which sets out a framework for constructive investor / investee relations where managers are encouraged to behave like responsible, typically longer term 'company owners'.

Find fund / asset management companies that regularly initiate or run industry wide (collaborative) investor projects aimed at raising environmental, social and governance standards amongst investee companies.

Find fund / asset management companies that are working with the companies they invest in to encourage more responsible corporate taxation.

Fund / asset manager has stewardship /responsible ownership strategy that is focused on addressing climate change with investee assets.

Fund / asset manager has a stewardship /responsible ownership strategy that involves working with fossil fuel companies on climate change related issues. See fund manager website for details.

The fund / asset manager has a responsible ownership / stewardship strategy that focuses on biodiversity and nature issues relating to the assets they invest the aim of which will be to reduce harm and or deliver improvement. Strategies vary. https://tnfd.global

Fund / asset manager has a responsible ownership / stewardship strategy which means they are working to encourage the shift to more sustainable business practices in ways that respect and are sensitive to social issues and the impact change has on people effected by the changes that are taking place. https://www.transitionpathwayinitiative.org/ https://transitiontaskforce.net/

Fund / asset manager has responsible ownership / stewardship strategy in place which aims to address human rights issues in investee companies (and potentially their suppliers) with the aim of raising standards

Fund / asset manager has responsible ownership / stewardship strategy in place that aims to improve labour standards for the benefit of employees in investee companies (and potentially their suppliers)

Fund / asset management company has a stewardship strategy in place which involves working to raise diversity, equality and inclusion standards across investee assets

Fund / asset manager is working with the assets they hold to help stamp out modern slavery - where direct or indirect company employees are exploited for business benefits.

Fund / asset managers have stewardship strategies in place that focus on improving governance standards across investee assets

Has a stewardship / responsible ownership strategy that encourages responsible supply chain - ie the managers will discuss environmental, social and governance issues with investee companies with the aim of raising standards

Working to address sustainability, ESG and related concerns around artificial intelligence.

Escalation policies describe how a manager will proceed if stewardship / engagement activity is not successful in the short term.

Fund / asset management organisations that have pledged to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to ‘net zero’. Strategies vary - this area is changing rapidly.

Fund / asset manager AGM / EGM voting strategy has processes in place that mean they will normally be expected to vote in a way that will encourage the transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Find fund / asset management companies that have published a Climate Risk policy or statement that is signed / owned by their Chief Executive.

This fund / asset management company has set a date by which they plan to achieve net zero greenhouse gas / CO2e emissions.

Find fund / asset management companies that are working with the companies they invest in to encourage reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.

Finds organisations / fund managers that have a company wide carbon transition plan - meaning that they have plotted a path to how they will move away from activities that produce or use carbon based energy sources (that emit greenhouse gases) towards clean, alternative, renewable energy sources.

Finds organisations / fund managers that have published ‘forward looking climate metrics’ e.g. 'implied temperature rise' data that are a total of the asset management company's share (% owned) of all the investee company emissions of the assets they manage, as well as their own direct and other indirect emissions.

This fund / asset management company plans to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (CO2e) emissions by reducing their emissions. Calculations and scope vary.

Find fund / asset management companies that are working to reduce their own (fund management company) carbon/greenhouse gas emissions.

Finds organisations / fund management companies that are in the process of working out how to make a ‘net zero commitment’ - meaning that when that is finalised they will have started the process of reducing their total greenhouse gas emissions to 'zero'.

Find fund / asset management companies that publish a report detailing their responsible investment ownership - also known as 'Stewardship' - activity.

Find fund / asset management companies that publish information about their sustainable and responsible investment strategies on their company website.

Find fund / asset management companies that will supply information about their sustainable and responsible investment activity on request.

Fund / asset management companies that publish a full record of how they vote their shares at AGMs (annual general meetings) and EGMs (extraordinary general meetings). Voting strategies have an important role to play encouraging higher environmental, social and governance standards.

This fund / asset management company has published a plan that explains how they are going to achieve net zero greenhouse gas / CO2e emissions.