British fund management group Schroders has committed to integrating an environmental, social and governance approach across its entire investment portfolio by 2020.
In a statement on Wednesday (20 November), the fund group said the move comes having successfully achieved integration across 50% of its assets with the in-house Sustainability Accreditation programme.
The accreditation has ‘Screened’, ‘Integrated’, ‘Sustainable’ and ‘Impact’ categories to steer clients through how ESG factors are considered across the fund group’s products.
It is intended to enable clients to understand the different roles that ESG plays in the investment process and will be documented in the funds’ respective factsheets.
‘Screened’ funds actively exclude certain activities from their portfolios, while ‘Integrated’ funds routinely and robustly consider ESG factors throughout the investment process.
Furthermore, ‘Sustainable’ funds seek to identify the best-in-class most sustainable companies and the ‘Impact’ accreditation highlights funds whose main goal is to achieve specific and measurable ESG impacts.
“We know the value that investment can create for society. That’s why we seek to integrate ESG considerations into our research and overall investment decisions across investment desks and asset classes,” said Jessica Ground, the company’s global head of stewardship.
“As an active manager, we see sustainable investment as an integral and necessary part of our responsibility. Our clients are increasingly asking for ESG to be embedded into their portfolios and, in turn, we are also constantly seeking to improve how effectively we integrate ESG across Schroders’ investment desks. It is not just a tick-box process.”
