Stewardship and engagement
We are not a passive partner for clients – we are an active owner of assets on their behalf.
Stewardship
We believe that the proper consideration of relevant environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters affects the long-term sustainable performance of companies and benefits the investors of such companies.
To this end, we:
- seek to understand the ESG issues that impact companies in which we are invested;
- evaluate a company’s particular policies and practices in relation to relevant issues;
- encourage companies to align with best practice on ESG issues;
- enter into constructive dialogue and engagement where a company’s approach or practices on relevant ESG matters is below investor expectations;
- leverage our clients’ investor rights to push for desired outcomes from investee companies; and
- align our votes at general meetings with our engagement objectives.
Read more about how AXA IM responds to the SRD II requirements.
Sovereigns
We consider that the sustainability-related health of sovereign nations contributes significantly to the capacity of governments to issue debt and repay it. We want the financial health of countries to be aligned with broader policy aims – such as those described in the UN SDGs. To this extent, we engage with sovereigns to encourage progress in terms of sustainable development.
Policymakers
We work with regulatory authorities and policymakers to ensure that public policy supports an investment environment which takes seriously sustainability and responsible investment issues.
Engagement
Our engagements in 2020 were naturally affected by the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown. Despite the new challenges, they remained driven by our long term conviction in key thematic areas that we consider most urgent and material for investors – climate change, biodiversity and human capital, alongside gender diversity, public health, data privacy and corporate governance.
Climate Change
The coronavirus pandemic was extremely harmful for economies worldwide but at the same time it delivered a sharp drop-off in carbon emissions.
Biodiversity collapse
We began 2020 by joining a call to find partners who could help develop and implement a tool that measured the impact of investments on biodiversity.
Gender Equality
2020 saw us harden our commitment to drive better gender diversity in our investments.
Date privacy
Collection of personal data has fuelled the rapid growth of internet-based technology companies.
COVID-19 and public health
The scale of the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented but the dynamics of the disease – how it spreads and affects patients – were arguably predictable.
Our reports and policies
