Harbour puts out first stewardship report as sustainability round up

The stewardship section outlines incorporation of ESG, engagement and voting practices for the year 2023. Harbour uses ISS ESG for monitoring and compliance on exclusions. The key reporting mechanism internally is through Harbour’s risk committee made up of managers across the business as well as a board representative.

Committee meetings are quarterly and involve an update from each business segment including ESG risk. The stewardship programme is externally audited which encompasses a range of operational processes that includes proxy voting activity.

Harbour’s annual Corporate Behaviour Survey is the primary way of comprehensively assessing how well each company in our NZ investment universe is addressing ESG considerations with engagement playing a key part.

Last year’s extreme weather events and the climate disclosure regime were main drivers of climate engagement. Companies with contentious ESG issues such as board composition and executive/director remuneration particularly around company AGMs were also targeted.