Responsible investment

Through comprehensive research, our Global Property Securities team developed a tool[1] capable of undertaking high level analysis on all embodied carbon associated with development, redevelopment, and maintenance capital expenditure programmes at a company level.

The unprecedented threats to nature and biodiversity, fundamental to our global economy and the fight against climate change is prompting investors to assess and disclose nature-related risks. To help investors start assessing nature, we have developed a guide that outlines a due diligence approach and resources, focusing on freshwater and forests.

In 2022, we updated our Human Rights Toolkit to provide additional guidance on the human rights implications of armed conflict, informed by human rights experts. Read about how we used this toolkit to engage with companies amidst the Russia/Ukraine conflict.

Stewart Investors is the convenor of the multi-year collaborative engagement initiative: 'Tackling conflict mineral content in the semicondcutor supply chain'. Tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold (referred to collectively as conflict minerals) along with cobalt, are essential building blocks of the semiconductor industry. The poor traceability of these minerals among complex supply chains can make it hard to trace their source, which may often be in conflict-affected regions, and inadvertently finance armed conflict and the abuse of human rights.

Investors Against Slavery and Trafficking APAC (IAST APAC) is an investor-led, multi-stakeholder project. It was established in 2020 to engage listed companies in the Asia-Pacific region to find, fix and prevent modern slavery in their operations and supply chains. IAST APAC comprises 42 investors with A$9.4 trillion in assets under management[2], with Walk Free and the Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAST) initiative acting as knowledge partners and Walk Free as Secretariat.

Microfibres have been finding their way into our beaches, rivers and deep ocean, in the air we breathe and the food we eat for decades. Research by the First Sentier MUFG Sustainable Investment Institute (SII) outlines the sources and distribution of microfibre pollution, reasons for its urgent address and steps to prevent it. First Sentier Investors is leading, in collaboration with the UK’s Marine Conservation Society, a program to engage with the manufacturers of domestic and commercial washing machines to fit filtration technology to their products, as a standard feature. In addition to engaging with companies, we have engaged with a number of regulators as part of this initiative.