The strategy was switched to a sustainable mandate about 3 years ago. The fund manager who oversaw the switch retired and Nigel Yates took this over as the lead manager.
Nigel manages the Ethical Strategy and therefore this seems a perfect fit. He previously managed a UK Fund for NFU Mutual and managed a Pension Fund. Although ESG and Sustainability were not part of the strategy at NFU, he did develop his own ESG framework. When he took on this fund there were some changes to reflect his approach.
This covers three central themes – people, planet, and progress. Engagement is a key part of the strategy and transition to being a better company. He explained that no company is perfect, and it is about working with them to see that change happen.
We talked about examples where a company did amazing work with child labour in India, but the social pillar within the company hadn’t been thought through, especially around staff turnover. Another company had a really progressive outreach programme in the areas they work, and a real focus on staff moral etc, but they didn’t have good board diversity and no independent whistle blower policy….read more