Responsible investment

We believe strong performance should be underpinned by responsible investment practices.  

ESG considerations

We invest to deliver strong, long-term returns for members. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors play an important role in the investment decisions we make across our portfolio, because we believe these issues can present significant risks and opportunities for long-term investment performance. ESG factors taken into account in our investment process may include: 

Our approach

Our responsible investment approach affects all our superannuation and account-based pension products, using a combination of ESG integration and active ownership strategies. For more information on how we invest, please read our responsible investment definition.

ESG INTEGRATION

Positive investments
We actively seek investment opportunities that can offset long-term environmental and social risks while delivering the right risk and return characteristics to meet our investment objectives for our members

Restricted investments
We have restrictions on investment in shares of companies involved with certain activities.
Working with our ESG research provider, we identify companies in developed markets which meet our restriction criteria (for example, assets or revenue in specified activities exceeding specified thresholds*). The activities may include:
- tobacco products
- nuclear armaments
- gambling
- conventional armaments
- coal mining, oil tar sand and coal-fired electricity

Monitoring
We monitor our investments for ESG risks and engage with our fund managers and advisors on how to integrate ESG considerations into the investment process.

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ACTIVE OWNERSHIP

Engagement
We monitor and engage with selected companies we invest in on ESG issues through our investment managers, our involvement with industry groups and associations like the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) and CGI Glass Lewis and occasionally by direct engagement as an investor.
More broadly, we work with leading industry bodies to push for positive change on ESG issues.

Proxy voting
We aim to vote at shareholder meetings of the companies we invest in and generally publish our decisions on our website before the meetings take place.

Disclosure
We disclose information on our website about our holdings, proxy voting and responsible investment practices so members can see where and how their money is invested.

Investment restrictions with revenue thresholds

To limit our exposure to certain industries and activities, we apply investment restrictions across the Active Super developed market listed equities portfolios. These investment restrictions are generally based on asset or revenue thresholds. 

Using the data available from our ESG research provider, we identify the percentage of assets and/or revenue of companies in those portfolios that are directly attributable to the restricted activities, which include:

  • Production of tobacco products, nuclear weapons, cluster bombs or land mines 
  • Gambling, conventional armaments, uranium mining and nuclear power
  • Coal mining, oil tar sands mining, and coal-fired electricity generation

Specific definitions and thresholds apply to each of these categories.

For more information on our investment restrictions, please read our responsible investment definition.

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