NEST Corporation today announces EIRIS as the successful bidder for a contract to provide data on a broad range of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
NEST, the National Employment Savings Trust, is a new easy-to-use pension scheme that any UK employer can use to meet the new workplace pensions duties that start in 2012.
NEST will use data from EIRIS to analyse the potential ESG risks presented in the variety of assets it owns, to check that firms are being well-managed and to understand how they are shaping the societies and environments they influence. NEST will also use EIRIS data to monitor its fund managers and to inform NEST's voting and engagement activities.
NEST Chief Investment Officer Mark Fawcett said "NEST aspires to a world class responsible investment approach. We firmly believe that environmental, social and governance issues should be factored into investment processes in order to act in the best financial interests of our members. Our research points to responsible investment providing long-term value, reducing risk and contributing towards better member outcomes".
"As part of our commitment to being a responsible owner and investor, NEST will exercise its voting rights in an informed manner via its fund managers and actively engage with its investee companies to meet and exceed standards of good practice as set out in the FRC's Stewardship Code and the United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment" he continued.
Peter Webster, EIRIS' Executive Director said "We are delighted to be working with NEST to help them gain a more complete understanding of ESG investment risk and performance as part of a long-term investment approach. This announcement comes at an exciting time for us as we continue to expand the range of services we offer to asset owners".
Consideration of ESG issues is on the rise and a growing number of asset owners are adopting responsible investment practices. The United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) now has more than 900 signatories representing approximately USD 30 trillion of assets under management.
EIRIS has almost 30 years' experience of providing global research on responsible investment issues and has worked with some of the world's largest asset owners to help them identify manage ESG risk.
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