Over the past year, the PPF has continued to improve its ESG risk measurement across the portfolio – including private markets - and aligned its policies and tools with the more ambitious 1.5 degrees climate scenario, something that is expanded on in its Climate Change report.
As part of its ongoing commitment to actively encourage responsible investment, the PPF, which holds £39 billion in its portfolio, has further used its voice to deliver company change by engaging with 196 companies on material ESG issues and voting at almost 5,000 meetings this year, including opposing at least one resolution at 67% of meetings.
In addition, it has:
• Introduced new voting guidelines for listed equity holdings on climate change, modern slavery, and D&I, and consolidated its voting records across segregated and pooled mandates.
• Carried out a Net Zero alignment project across the complete portfolio to assess its alignment with the Paris Agreement and identify highest-priority engagement targets.
• Transitioned to a new equity benchmark to drive a significant reduction in the carbon exposure of the portfolio.
• Started requiring regular ESG metrics from alternatives managers and backed the ESG Data Outreach project by eFront to promote standardisation.
• Helped to develop a cross-body industry standard TCFD template for managers to report carbon emissions.
Claire Curtin, Head of ESG, commented, “The PPF is incredibly proud of the work and efforts highlighted in our latest Responsible Investing report, although we are still learning on our exciting ESG journey as we adapt to a changing world. We hope that this report not only highlights the progress we’ve made but provides an opportunity to share our insights and knowledge with the wider industry so that we can continue learning from each other.”
Looking ahead to the future, the PPF is seeking to advance its focus on Net Zero stewardship by using the findings from its portfolio alignment project to develop a stewardship strategy for the highest-priority engagement targets identified. Additionally, it is seeking to further engage with managers to explore ways to improve the level and quality of ESG data disclosure for credit and private markets, identify ESG investment opportunities and develop a holistic organisational sustainability strategy as part of its three-year Strategic Plan.
Responsible Investment Report
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