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At Stewart Investors, we believe in putting people first. Our investment world-view is of a series of partnerships – with each other, with our clients, with the companies we invest in, the people who buy their goods and services, and with the wider society in which we all live and work.

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Environment

At First Sentier Investors, we believe that society must drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis. Although we anticipate that greenhouse gas emissions in our own business operations are small compared to the emissions we finance through our investments, we are committed to reducing the environmental impacts of our business operations in all the locations in which we operate.

Net zero target

In March 2022, we announced a firm-wide target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across our business operations in line with a target of net zero emissions by 2030 (or sooner)*.

We are working towards this goal by transitioning our offices to renewable energy via energy retailers or through the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates, energy efficiency opportunities in our offices, expanding our emissions data collection and developing resources to support our business.
 

Renewable energy

Since 2020, we have steadily increased the percentage of renewable energy procured for our office operations. In 2023, over 95% of our office electricity consumption came from renewable sources^ and we maintained green gas^^ procurement for our Edinburgh facility, our only office facility with a direct gas contract.

Global electricity source

Source: First Sentier Investors

* This target covers Scope 1, 2 and limited Scope 3 emissions in line with the GHG Protocol. Scope 3 is limited to our corporate travel activities. Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from owned or controlled sources. Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy. Scope 3 covers a company's 'value chain' emissions and is divided across 15 categories for both upstream (supply chain) and downstream activities (lifecycle of products).

^ Renewable electricity obtained via energy retailers or through the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).

^^ Green gases are renewable and low carbon gases such as biomethane that can be used in place of fossil fuels. First Sentier Investors purchases green gas via tariff arrangement with our energy provider.

Environmental policy statement

Our Environmental Policy Statement provides a framework to support our progress towards our environmental objectives and address the associated risks with our own business operations. It covers climate change, energy, pollution, waste, water, travel and our supply chain.

Our emissions data

We monitor and report on our corporate emissions using the World Resources Institute and World Business Council for Sustainability Development Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard.

Tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e)

First Sentier Investors December 2023

1 Data may differ from that reported in prior First Sentier Investors reports, due to improvements in our calculation methodology, and updating our data using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Global Warming Potential (GWP), from the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) to the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) values. We have restated all years for comparability.

2 In 2023, we expanded our Scope 3 reporting to Category, 1, 3, 5, 7 and 8. These emissions categories are reported for the first time in 2024 for the 2023 period.

Our focus areas

Our Corporate Sustainability strategy is organised into four focus areas

Plans and progress

We continue to look at ways to decarbonise our operations. We are focussed on strengthening our data tracking and reporting, delivering relevant certifications, and working across our business to strengthen how we operate sustainably.

You can read more about our plans and our progress in our Corporate Sustainability Report.

Calculation notes on our Emissions

Emission factors for Scopes 1 and 2 reference published regional emissions factors from government and utility publications. Emission factors for Scope 3 emissions are based on DEFRA UK’s and the US EPA EEIO published emission conversion factors.

Our Scope 1 emissions are from the combustion of natural gas in our Edinburgh office and currently excludes diesel (as part of stationary combustion) and refrigerants - these are expected to be immaterial to our operational GHG inventory. We do not have any company vehicles, and therefore no associated transport fuel contributing to our Scope 1 emissions.

For our Scope 2 emissions, we use actual consumption data from our head-leased offices and estimates for our serviced offices (where consumption data is not available), using our global energy data and scaled by office area. Serviced offices make up <5% of our total global net lettable area (NLA). We purchase renewable energy via energy retailer tariffs or Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) for our global offices. Steam heating is limited to our New York office.

We use dual reporting for our Scope 2 emissions. A location-based method reflects the average emissions intensity of grids on which energy consumption occurs (using mostly grid-average emission factor data). A market-based method reflects emissions from electricity that First Sentier Investors has purposefully chosen. This takes into account our procurement of renewable electricity. It derives emission factors from contractual instruments, which include any type of contract between two parties for the sale and purchase of energy bundled with attributes about the energy generation, or for unbundled attribute claims.

On our Scope 3 emissions, we have previously focused on our reporting on corporate business travel including flights, accommodation and car hire. During 2023, we expanded our Scope 3 reporting to include emissions arising from employee commuting, working from home, water, waste and fuel and energy related emissions not already included in Scope 1 or Scope 2 (defined as Category 3 by the GHG Protocol). We continue to evolve the reporting of our material Scope 3 emissions alongside continual improvements in our data. Where available, we use actual data for calculating our Scope 3 emissions. However, where data availability is limited, we apply estimation models to extrapolate this across our global footprint. Our global purchased goods and services emissions are currently calculated using a spend-based methodology.

For more information on definitions and our emissions calculation methodology, please refer to the Appendix notes in the 2023 Corporate Sustainability Report.