The views expressed are those of the author at the time of writing. Other teams may hold different views and make different investment decisions. The value of your investment may become worth more or less than at the time of original investment. While any third-party data used is considered reliable, its accuracy is not guaranteed. For professional, institutional, or accredited investors only.
Wellington’s long-standing commitment to deep fundamental research and meaningful engagement with investee companies continues to drive positive engagement outcomes that we believe support and enhance long-term investment value for our clients. We are proud of progress we made in 2021 advancing our stewardship priorities, and we have seen many positive outcomes spanning a range of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. We look forward to continued momentum on ESG and to expanding our influence via active ownership in 2022.
Climate action at an energy company
As part of our commitment to the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative and our belief that carbon considerations represent a meaningful transition risk, we continue to engage with companies, particularly in carbon-intensive sectors, to understand how they plan to set science-based targets and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We engaged with an energy company to assess its long-term carbon-emissions reduction goals and progress on setting a meaningful target. In October, the company announced it would target net-zero emission by 2050 and cut operational GHG emissions intensity by 30% by 2030.
Executive compensation at a digital payments company
Aligning executive remuneration with company performance to ensure long-term alignment with shareholder interests has long been an ESG area of focus. Over the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness and heightened reputational risk for companies that flout or disregard these concerns. We engaged with a digital payments company to better understand the rationale behind a proposal to issue executive cash bonuses based on cost-cutting initiatives and growth metrics in just one business segment. We encouraged the company to implement a more holistic compensation plan that emphasizes overall growth. The company decided to revert to its pre-pandemic compensation structure, including the metrics as we had suggested.
DEI transparency at an energy company
We targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in 2021 as a key stewardship priority for companies to disclose the racial and ethnic composition of their board. We wrote to all S&P 500 companies, communicating our expectations and explaining how this issue would align with our voting guidelines. During 2021, a US-based oil and gas exploration and production company responded positively through further engagement, detailing its plan to expand these disclosures. The company has promised to include the racial and ethnic composition of its board starting with its proxy statement at the 2022 annual general meeting.
Impact measurement and management: addressing key challenges
Continue readingNavigating AI resource demands: Strategies for sustainable data center operations
Continue readingURL References
Related Insights
Stay up to date with the latest market insights and our point of view.
Impact measurement and management: addressing key challenges
Our IMM practice leader describes common impact investing challenges and suggests ways to overcome them.
Navigating AI resource demands: Strategies for sustainable data center operations
AI's growing computational demands are raising critical questions about energy efficiency and water-resource management. We delve into strategies for enhancing sustainable data center operations, highlighting the importance of proactive resource stewardship.
Impact measurement and management practices
What constitutes an impact investment? How is impact measured? And, what are the benefits of impact investing? Our Impact Management and Measurement Practice Leader Oyin Oduya discusses our approach.
Assessing the impact of climate resilience
Oyin Oduya and Louisa Boltz discuss the case for impact solutions focused on climate adaptation and share high-level guidelines to help overcome the associated measurement challenge.
Human capital management for private companies
We discuss why effective people management is critical for private companies and outline four strategic focus areas that can help companies navigate evolving employee needs, regulatory changes, and investor expectations.
2023 Climate Report
Aligned with TCFD recommendations, this report describes how we manage climate-related risks and opportunities, engage with companies on climate change, and reduce our own carbon footprint.
Climate mapping in action: Investment case studies
We describe our Climate Exposure Risk Application (CERA), which can help our investment teams visualize and quantify physical climate risks.
In our view, climate change is a macro catalyst with the potential to disrupt entire industries, producing both relative winners and relative losers. Market-neutral strategies may offer the potential to capitalize on both.
Is your asset allocation ready for the realities of climate change?
Our Investment Strategy Team shares key findings from the research behind their climate-aware strategic asset allocation (SAA) approach, including challenges and trade-offs that asset owners should understand.
How will asset prices be affected by climate risk? Members of our Investment Strategy team explain how they're seeking to answer that question with their new climate-aware capital market assumptions.
URL References
Related Insights
