Super Fund scores As for responsible investment

The NZ Super Fund has scored well in a report looking at its approach to responsible investment across its $47 billion portfolio.

Wednesday, August 19th 2020, 5:40PM

The United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) has scored the NZ Super Fund highly for how it manages environmental, social and governance issues.

UNPRI's latest Assessment and Transparency Report rated the NZ Super Fund:

A+ for strategy and governance;
A+ for listed equity, property and infrastructure and A for fixed income relating to the selection, appointment and monitoring of managers;
A for internal active listed equities, and;
A for active ownership.

“The UNPRI is the leading global proponent of responsible investment. We benchmark our practices against its principles to ensure we achieve our long-standing commitment to responsible investment,” says NZ Super Fund Head of Responsible Investment Anne-Maree O’Connor.

“We believe environmental, social and governance factors are material to long term returns.

“This report gives us confidence we’re managing the fund in a manner that is consistent with our legislation, our goal of being engaged investors and our internal responsible investment policies.”

In the past year the NZ Super Fund has been active in the One Planet Sovereign Wealth Fund working group to accelerate efforts to incorporate climate change considerations into the investment decision-making process and ownership activities of sovereign wealth funds.

It has also played an active role on the UN Finance Commission on Modern Slavery in the finance sector, the Aotearoa Circle’s Sustainable Finance Forum and co-led the Social Media Collaborative Engagement to pressure technology companies to strengthen controls to prevent the live streaming and distribution of objectionable content following the 15 March 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack.

The NZ Super Fund was one of the founding 25 signatories to the UNPRI in 2006. Since then, the number of participants has grown to over 3,500.

Tags: ESG NZ Super Fund responsible investing UNPRI