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ConferenceReport

RI EUROPE 2015

CONFERENCE REPORT JULY 2015

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Top right: Tal Ullmann of Sustainalyticsand the PRI’s Maria Lettini

Middle right: Julia Kochetygova of S&PDow Jones Indices

Right: Marthe Nordby and Remy Briandof MSCI

I wanted to congratulate you onyour successful RI Conferencein London! It was fantastic, goodcontent, good speakers andgreat vibe!

Christine Gugolz Kiefer, Head of ClientStrategy Management, RobecoSAM

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RobecoSAM made an interesting offer toasset owners and the concept of ‘forcefulstewardship’ kicked off the RI Europeevent in London today.

In his introduction to the two-dayconference, RobecoSAM’s CEO MichaelBaldinger made an offer to asset ownersin the room to reduce environmentalimpact by 20% “for free – with very, verylow tracking error”.

He had 10 business cards with a voucheron the reverse side. “Call me – togetherwe can have a positive impact. This is acall to action from me to you.”

He went on: “Sustainable investing can doso much more than exclude one singlestock in the investment universe.”

Then the new ‘forceful stewardship’project was explained in greater detail. It’sthe brainchild of Preventable Surprises’Raj Thamotheram and Howard Covington,the former New Star Asset ManagementCEO. Covington, citing research fromDietz and Stern, spoke of the coming‘carbon damage to dividends’ as climatechange takes hold – with asset liabilitymodels potentially in trouble.

“The market will completely ignore thesenumbers until it can’t ignore it,” he said.“Then it will suddenly wake and we’ll seevalues adjusted.” He went on to describethe potential obsolesence of oil and coalinto “an extrapolation of how the strandingof assets will take place”.

Thamotheram said the pair had beeninfluenced by the ‘Aiming for A’ initiative atBP, Shell and Statoil but called for a moreforceful version next year. He describedhow they are building a coalition ofinvestors (which he declined to name) toget companies to reveal their low carbonbusiness plans.

Speaking to a roomful of investors,Covington said: “We will be coming to seeyou” to discuss a “well-considered, forcefulrequest for a low carbon business plan.He put the ‘The Gorbachev Question’: “Ifyou don’t, who will? If not now, thenwhen?”

RI Europe 2015: RobecoSAM makes offer toasset owners; ‘forceful stewardship’ isdescribedKicking off our on-the spot coverage of RI Europe

by RI journalists | June 2nd, 2015

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Breaking news fromRI Europe 2015

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Above: Jeremey Coller

Left: Howard Covington

Below left: Below left: Jennifer Anderson ofThe Pensions Trust, Jan Willem de Moor ofRobeco and Sevinc Acar of PGGM

Below: Michael Baldinger of RobecoSAM

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France’s Caisse des Dépôts andSwedfund International are this year’swinners of the RI Reporting Awards 2015– for Best RI Report by a Large Fund andBest RI Report for a Medium & SmallFund, respectively. The awards werebestowed on the two public financialinstitutions today, the first day of the RIEurope 2005 conference in London.

The RI Reporting Awards – now in theirthird year – showcase excellence inresponsible investment and ESGreporting, encouraging best practice andtransparency by recognising the higheststandards in the disclosure of responsibleinvestment activities by asset ownersglobally.

Public disclosure, accountability andtransparency enhance the credibility ofresponsible investment, leading to higherstandards. Using publicly availableinformation, the judges looked forreporting best practice in terms ofsimplicity, relevance, disclosure andprocess.

Starting with Caisse des Dépôts, theawards jury noted that its RI report wasone of the most detailed and transparentof any submitted. It said: “There is a verydetailed description about ESG(environmental, social and governance)integration for each asset class.” Otherreasons for the award were boarddiversity at the bank and the use ofindependent auditors. The jury laudedSwedfund’s RI report as “most informativeand comprehensive.”

It said: “The report’s strengths lie in itsclear definitions of what impacts it viewsas constituting success and how they canbe measured. It specifies these clearly(jobs created, taxes paid, investeecompany growth) and then reportsaggregated and investment-specificnumbers.”

In the Large Funds category, the RIreports from Swedish state buffer fundAP4 and CalPERS, the US pension giant,were given commendations. In AP4’scase, the jury liked the fact that the

scheme provided comprehensive data onits RI activities and the improvements tothem. CalPERS produced a “solid reportthat linked investment beliefs, managingrisk, and ESG considerations into acohesive approach,” the jury said.

In the Medium & Small Funds category,the reports from the UK’s EnvironmentAgency Pension Fund and the GeneralBoard of Pension and Health Benefits (forthe United Methodist Church – UMC) werealso commended.

The jury commended the EnvironmentAgency pension scheme for its “strategiccommitment to have 25% of its assets(£2.8bn €3.9bn) invested alongsustainable/responsible criteria by 2015.”The scheme for the UMC wascommended for providing “case studies ona variety of in-depth ESG topics like waterpreservation, disaster relief and conflictminerals.”

Caisse des Dépôtsand SwedfundInternational win RIReporting AwardsWinners of third annual RIReporting Awards announced




Helena Charrier, Responsible InvestmentProject Director, Caisse des Dépôts withthe award which was presented by PierinMenzli, Head Sustainable InvestmentResearch, Bank J. Safra Sarasin

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Above: Pia Axelsson of AP4

Right: Anna Ryott and Karin Askelöf ofSwedfund International

Above: Henry Jones, CalPERS (centre) and James Andrus (right)

Right: Kirsty Jenkinson of Wespath

Faith Ward, Environment AgencyPension Fund

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“The economy is a sub-system of thebiosphere,” those were the words of PerBolund, the first biologist to be MarketsMinister in Sweden – making the point thatthere is absolutely no conflict betweensustainable and financial goals. Mankind, heargued, needed to stop acting like childrenand more like a “shepherd of the planet”.

His government, he told the 500-strongaudience in a keynote address, wants to be aglobal role model for sustainabledevelopment leadership. “It’s too late forexcuses. We need to start moving andreduce emissions for sustainabledevelopment at a global scale.” He focusedon the AP funds’ work on transparencyaround carbon emissions, saying for examplethat AP6 is undertaking a climate analysis ofthe unlisted companies in its portfolio. And hesaid there is no evidence at all that Sweden’sown carbon price – the highest in the world –had had any adverse effect on the economy.

Dominic Emery, VP, Long-term Planningand Policy at oil giant BP, spoke of the role ofthe Institutional Investors Group on ClimateChange (IIGCC), the European investorforum. The IIGCC has, he said “helped us tothink more deeply” about climate changeissues – as had the Aiming for A shareholderresolution process. “It’s part of a journey. Athoughtful [shareholder] resolution can makea lot of difference,” he said, adding: “There isonly one direction of travel.” Asked what hethought would happen to carbon prices as aresult of future regulation and renewables,Emery said the company was already workingwith an “internal carbon price” in a bid to makethe firm more energy efficient and reduce itscarbon emissions. He defined that price ataround $40, which was much higher thanwhat carbon emissions were trading on the

EU Emissions Trading Scheme. “It’s not for usto decide what the carbon price ultimately willbe. That’s for the markets. But it’s clear that ithas to rise considerably from its current level.”

Speaking on the same panel, EwaldStephan, Chief Investment Officer of the€2bn Protestant Church pension fund Verka,said his scheme had recently done threeengagement campaigns, one with a sportinggoods producer whose workers in Asia werebeing paid less than minimum wage; one witha large bank which has suffered reputationalrisk recently; and finally with issuers ofemerging markets sovereign bonds overhuman rights.

Julia Kochetygova, Senior Director,Product Management at S&P Dow JonesIndices, floated the idea of a green SharpeRatio – referring to the way to examine theperformance of an investment by adjustingfor its risk.

Elsewhere, Mark Chaloner, AssistantDirector of Investments at the West MidlandsPension Fund, said he thought responsibleinvesting was moving to the mainstream. “Ifyou consider that we now have some 1,300signatories to the PRI (Principles forResponsible Investment) and 200 of them areasset owners, I think it’s clear we’ve made alot of progress.” His fund has started takingESG issues into account during stockselection – and joined the LAPFF (LocalAuthority Pension Fund Forum) and wasinvolved with the Investing4Growth initiative.

Remy Briand, Global Head of Research atMSCI said many investors continued to sit onthe ESG fence – unlike Swedish pensionfund AMF, which recently allocated its entireequity portfolio to an index that had an ESGcomponent.

Janice Turner, Co-Chair of the Associationof Member Nominated Trustees (AMNT),whose Red Line project is trying to get UKpension schemes to do ESG integration, said:“If you’re just letting companies do whateverthey want to do, you are not providing theproper safeguards…For example, if youbelieve that board directors are beingoverpaid, you must realise that your moneycould be better spent otherwise.“

Frederic Hoogveld, Investment Specialistat Amundi, began his remarks by noting thatthe French asset manager’s low-carbon indexproducts, which it had developed with MSCI,had attracted €2.5bn in assets.

Francois Passant, executive director atEurosif, in a plenary on the EU dimension ofresponsible investment, noted howsustainability was barely mentioned in thebloc’s ambitious Capital Markets Union planor the criteria for the new European LongTerm Investment Fund (ELTIF) structure.

Philippe Desfossés, chief executive officerat France’s ERAFP, said he wasn’t sure thatELTIFs were the anwwer for the “size of theissue”. “The real issue is lengthening theduration of large, institutional pension funds.Funds dedicated to indivuals or smallinvestments are not the right answer.” Hewarned that the European Commissionoperated in silos and it was difficult to getconsistency. And he argued strongly thatinvestment consultants should let their trusteeclients know that they will be sued if theydon’t address these issues: “Just tell them.”Turning to green bonds, he was sceptical asto how they help decarbonisation – though hewould consider some form of legally ring-fenced structure.

RI Europe 2015: Sweden’s Bolund on economyand the biosphere; BP name checks IIGCCOur on-the-spot coverage from the London event.




With RI Europe in full swing, here’s a flavour of some of the key points made on the first day.

Left: Per Bolund

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Top right: (l to r) Linda-Eling Lee of MSCI,Edward Mason of the ChurchCommissioners for England and RaffaeleRusso of the OECD

Above: (l to r) Sean Kidney of the ClimateBonds Initiative, Clare Brook of the BlueMarine Foundation and Larry Band ofThe Prince’s Trust’s InternationalSustainability Unit

Right: Per Bolund, Swedish Minister forFinancial Markets and Consumer Affairs,Deputy Minister for Finance

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In a deep-dive panel looking atengagement for equities investment, titled‘integrated ownership strategies’, JenniferAnderson at the Pension Trust in the UK,which outsources some £7bn in assets to thirdparty fund managers, said they saw two typesof engagement: One: voting and engaging forgood stewardship and looking at reactivecompany risks. Two: engaged ownership andactive involvement that informs investmentdecisions: “Some fund managers see novalue in it, others are very innovative. Weappoint investment managers that areengaged owners: and we can now betteridentify those that have thought about this andcan demonstrate value over the long term.”

Alex van der Velden, Chief Executive ofOwnership Capital said part of the problemon ESG issues was not necessarily thatpension funds didn’t want to look at them, butthat they had inherited an ecosystem thatwasn’t built to do so: “Most fund managers’processes were not made to capture extra-financial info. Time horizons are also aproblem if you are worried about losing yourmandate each year: that’s not good for a long-term issue like climate change.” Van derVelden said size of stake was not the biggestissue for investors when engaging, butpreparation and knowledge was vital: “Youhave to look at how ESG risks play into thelong-term strategy of a company and thenmake it real for them. That way you makeyourself a potential partner not an adversary,and you have a conversation. Companies tellus that mainstream portfolio managers don’tthese questions, whereas we tell companieswe plan to invest for 10 years.”

On the real estate asset panel, Nils Kok,CEO and Co-founder of GRESB, the realestate manager benchmark, noted that 81%of European electricity consumption is via realestate, but said it doesn’t get the attention itdeserves in the carbon investment debate.

Barriers to take up, he said, included short-termism and a lack of appetite beyond ClassA, high-end buildings. He noted, however, thatby 2020 all new construction needed to benear zero net emissions by 2020. Ari Frankel,Director of ESG Strategy, Real Estate atDeutsche Asset & Wealth Management, saidthe same rules would apply in California.Pushback, he added included whethertenants would pay higher rates forenvironmentally friendly, which he said wasbeing worked around by some investors viaspecific green leases. Kok said GRESB wouldsoon release an infrastructure version ofGRESB, and also announced at theconference that it had put together the firstGreen Bond guidelines for real estate with theInternational Capital Markets Association(ICMA), published on June 2.

Nicky Amos, programme director at theBusiness Benchmark on Farm AnimalWelfare, announced a new investor coalitionwith £980bn of assets under managementwould engage with companies who are on thelowest two tiers of its benchmark of around 90companies. The coalition involves Aviva, BNPParibas, Coller Capital, Ecclesiastical, NEI,Rathbone Greenbank and Schroders. It willengage with companies which are at thebottom of the Business Benchmark on FarmAnimal Welfare and get them to account fortheir performance in the benchmark. “It will bea sign to large multinational food companiesthat investors care,” said Amos.

The event also saw the soft launch of theFarm Animal Investment Risk and Return(FAIRR) initiative set up by investors forinvestors to help them incorporate animalwelfare considerations into the investmentprocess, give insights into the industry andplug knowledge gaps.

The drought in São Paulo in Brazil washighlighted in a breakout session on waterand natural capital – with fears one of the

world’s largest city’s faces running out ofwater in the very near future. As MatthewDiserio, President Water Management, said,water is the resource that is defining the 21stcentury, as cheap oil was in the 20th.Moderator Cate Lamb, who heads CDP’swater project, revealed the environmentaldata body’s staff in the city are consideringhaving to leave the city.

The last few weeks have seen “an incredibleamount of momentum” on climate change – onthe company side, the investor side and theresearch side. That’s the view of StephaniePfeifer, CEO of the Institutional InvestorsGroup on Climate Change (IGCC). She wasspeaking as scientists announced a newApollo climate programme, and said: “It allseems to be happening.”

AP2 is now looking at the utilities sector inthe same way as it looked at coal, saidChristina Olivecrona, Sustainability Analyst atthe Swedish state fund. She pointed out thefund ran its first carbon footprint back in 2009– and again in 2014. And, while it’s a goodexercise, it’s “frustrating” because it is difficultto tell the meaning of the results that you get.Turning to the Aiming for A shareholderresolution initiative (AP2 was a co-filer atStatoil), she said the overwhelmingshareholder support “is telling us something”.

Jan Willem de Moor, Portfolio Manager forEuro Sustainable Credits at RobecoSAMnoted that in the five years that his firm hadrelied on ESG integration, the portfolio hadshowed outperformance. Sevinc Acar, Headof Beta Investment Grade Credits at Dutchpension investor PGGM, said that while herfirm could not speak of “outperformance,” itwas not costing PGGM money. Asked whycompanies should take the ESG approach ofbond investors like RobecoSAM and PGGMseriously, both de Moor and Acar said simply:“It’s because they need funding.”

RI Europe 2015: engagement, GRESB, animalwelfare, Sao Paulo drought, AP2 and utilitiesFurther highlights from Day 1 of RI Europe.




As RI Europe 2015 moved into its ‘Matrix’ breakout sessions, here’s a few highlights…

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Top Left: Ari Frankel of Deutsche Asset &Wealth Management

Top Right: Rory Sullivan of Ethix SRIAdvisors and Leeds University

Middle right: Alexander van der Velden ofOwnership Capital

Right: (l to r) Stephanie Pfeifer of IIGCC,Rick Stathers of Schroders and AP2’sChristina Olivercrona

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The £15.6bn (€21.4bn) StrathclydePension Fund has approved a £50minvestment in principle in the UK GreenInvestment Bank Offshore Wind Fund LP,said George Finnie, Investment Manager,New opportunities at Strathclyde. Therehas also been an investment of £30m inTemporis Onshore Wind Fund LP and aninvestment of US$50m in Markham RaeTrade Capital Partners. This will provideregulatory capital relief to internationalbanks to cut the cost of their capital intrade finance operations in return for ashare of the operations’ income. Andanother £20m has gone into the MuzinichUK Private Debt Fund which will lenddirectly to SMEs across the UK. The fundis making a staged movement away fromequities towards different asset classesvia its ‘new opportunities portfolio’.

In a ‘mythbusting’ session on impactinvesting, Tomas Carruthers, CEO of theUK’s Social Stock Exchange, said thebenefit of companies doing impactreporting was that it led to animprovement in employee engagement asit reminded them of the purpose ofbusiness. Michele Giddens of socialinvestor Bridges Ventures said it is a myththat there is no ‘scale’ in impactinvestment. She noted that online platform

Etsy was the first certified ‘BCorp’ (wherecompanies pledge to benefit society) tofloat on Nasdaq. With uncorrelatedreturns, social impact bonds couldbecome institutionally exciting once thereis a track record. Carruthers said hebelieved ESG would be common inmandates of large-cap and mid-capequities in the future. “If you integrateESG how do you distinguish yourself?” hesaid, suggesting impact investment couldbe a way.

So-called ‘blue bonds’ are “prettysimple and pretty compelling” as aninvestment thesis and similarly have areally strong sustainability thesis,according to Larry Band, who is aconsultant to Prince Charles’ InternationalSustainability Unit. The nascent bondswould be linked to the likes of sustainablefisheries, marine conservation and fishingfleet upgrades, though there is no trackrecord as yet. He went on to say that theWorld Bank is probably the onlyorganisation that has enough eligibleprojects on its balance sheet at themoment.

Human capital was the focus of aseparate Matrix session. Andy Howard,Managing Director of consultancy Didas

Research, unveiled the results of a studyshowing that companies with highemployee productivity outperform thosewith less. “We found that the shareoutperformance of those companiesagainst others was an average of 4%,”said Howard. According to him, the studyshows how important it was for companiesto keep employees satisfied. Howard alsocited US tech giant Apple as a companyknown for its high employee satisfaction.

Ryan Brightwell, Researcher atBankTrack, told RI on the sidelines of theevent that the NGO has still not received aformal response from the InternationalCapital Market Association (ICMA) aboutits detailed letter in April which set outsome of its misgivings about the GreenBond Principles, in particular a GDF Suez(now Engie) issue linked to a controversialBrazilian dam project. ICMA acts assecretariat for the principles andBankTrack – an official observer of theprinciples – is keen to engage with ICMAand the principles’ signatories on the topic,he added. Sean Kidney of the ClimateBonds Initiative said it is working with theChinese government on a green bondsframework which may be published laterthis year.

RI Europe 2015: ‘Blue bonds’; impact investing mythbusting; Strathclyde eyes offshore windThe latest highlights from the London conference.

by RI journalists | June 4th, 2015



Further coverage of RI Europe’s ‘Matrix’ panel sessions.

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Above: Investor consultant Louise Rouse

Above right: Catherine Howarth of ShareAction

Left: AODP Chair John Hewson

Below: James Upton of BHP Billiton

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Jeremy Coller, Founder and ExecutiveChairman of UK private equitysecondaries firm, Coller Capital, says hisnew initiative to have the risks associatedwith farm animal welfare considered as amaterial ESG (environmental, social andgovernance) investment issue, will publishits first report on those risks next month.

Coller announced the initiative, FAIRR(Farm Animal Investment Risk & Return),in February and soft launched it at the RIEurope 2015 conference. In a keynoteinterview with RI Managing Editor, HughWheelan, he said he envisioned FAIRR asa network of investors who agree toconsider animal welfare as aninvestment/risk issue and will monitorinvestee companies on how they deal withit. Most of the initiative’s focus is on animalfactory farming (AFF).

Coller said he hoped animal welfare wouldbe seen as one of the priorities forinvestors who have embraced the United

Nations-supported Principles forResponsible Investment (PRI).

“It’s not on the PRI list and we’d like tochange that. And I ask all of you investorsin the room to join us,” Coller tolddelegates. To illustrate the investmentrisks associated with poor treatment ofanimals, Coller cited the documentary film“Blackfish,” which portrayed the lot of killerwhales captured by Sea World, the USamusement park operator.

“When the film came out last year andwent viral, there was a 30% decline inattendance. Its (Sea World’s) share pricealso declined 30%. Its CEO was also firedlast month.”

He continued: “Coming to animal factoryfarming, there is the case of Hallmark-Westland, a California meat-packingcompany. It had the biggest product recallin US history: 143 million pounds of beefwere recalled, or the equivalent of 200jumbo jets.

The recall cost the company $116m. Butwhat bankrupted them in 2012 was aclass-action suit that followed.”

Hallmark-Westland, said Coller, was anexample of a short-term risk. With respectto the long term, he said there were “fourinconvenient truths” about factory farming.One was the spread of drug resistancedue to overuse of antibiotics on farmanimals. The second was that itcontributed greatly to global warming duemethane release. The third wasundernourishment caused by the need tosupport the practice with crops. And thefourth was ignorance about the issue.

“FAIRR should not necessarily be seen asa divestment campaign. Instead, whatwe’re asking is that investors plug theknowledge gap,” Coller said.

RI Europe 2015: Jeremy Coller backedFAIRR initiative to report on animalwelfare investment risksPrivate equity chief sees “four inconvenient truths” in factory farming.

by Jan Wagner | June 4th, 2015



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Above right: Christer Jonsson of AMFand Mamadou-Abou Sarr of NorthernTrust Asset Management

Right: (l to r) Neil Brown of Alliance TrustInvestments, Dorothy Maxwell of TheSustainable Business Group, PhilTownshend of Marks and Spencer andMichael Beutler of Kering

Below left: Nordea’s Sasja Beslik

Below right: (l to r) Colm Harney ofHymans Robertson, Amundi’s PhilippAmmann and Khalid Husain of TIAA-CREF

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Investment consultants came in for sharpcriticism on their approach to responsibleinvestment at RI Europe 2015 in London.Dawn Turner, head of pension fundmanagement at the Environment AgencyPension Fund, said they were not doingenough to challenge funds when advisingon ESG issues. She told the audience:“That’s despite the Law Commissionsaying pension funds are at fault if theydon’t do this as part of their fiduciary duty.”

Turner, speaking on a panel looking at thefossil fuel divestment debate, revealed thatthe Environment Agency fund wouldshortly invest passive equity exposure intoa low carbon target index to reduce itscarbon dioxide levels against the referencebenchmark. She also revealed it had takenmoney out of equities as the FTSE100index was very carbon intensive.

Mark Campanale, founder and executivedirector of the Carbon Tracker Initiativerevealed a number of new initiatives fromthe financial NGO. It has written to theSEC asking it to put pressure oncompanies to disclose the C02 exposureimplicit in their planned extraction projects.He said Carbon Tracker would itself becounting up the C02 in capital expenditurevia a new ‘CAPEX tracker’. He said thatthere would also be closer scrutiny on who

owns coal and gas companies in the pressin the coming weeks: “It will lead to someuncomfortable thinking”. He added: “Therehave been a couple of institutionsaggressively buying what has been soldby divesting investors, and the publicshould know who they are!”

Addressing long-term investing issues,Mark Mansley, chief investment officer atthe Environment Agency Pension Fund,advocated working with anunderperforming asset manager to helpthem improve, instead of immediatelysacking them: “We’ve done it twice in thelast two years. We could have sacked themanager but decided to engage with themand see what would work best.” He saidone manager had stocks in its portfolio thatthe fund was “deeply uncomfortable” with,so the EAPF worked with the manager oncarbon footprinting and ESG requirements.

Khalid Husain, director of ESG investingat TIAA CREF, said certain language likeESG integration can lose people. “Weneed to break down what that means. It islooking at fraud, labour standards, etc. Butbroadly saying ESG & SRI issues bringsthe misconception that it is a complianceexercise or more of a constraint. You needto break down ESG factors and makethem explicit and tangible.”

During a breakout session on ‘BigPharma’, Sile Lane, Director at the NGO,Sense About Science, saidthe world’slargest drugs firms don’t disclose theresults of clinical drug trials half of thetime. This is a serious risk for investorsgiven the potential for litigation, addedHelena Viñes Fiestas, Head ofSustainability Research at BNP ParibasInvestment Partners. Peter van der Werf,Engagement Specialist at RobecoSAM,said this the lack of transparency wassomething that his firm along with 21other investors were engaging withpharmaceutical firms on.

At a breakout session devoted tocorporate tax management, Linda-ElingLee, Global Head of Research at MSCI,said their research revealed an $82bnannual “tax gap“ for companies listed onthe MSCI World Index between what theypay now and what they would under amove to country-by-country revenuereporting, equivalent to 20% of earnings.Edward Mason, Head of ResponsibleInvestment at the UK ChurchCommissioners said companies that don’trecognise that the tax environment haschanged are exposing themselves to“significant risk.”

RI Europe 2015: EA fund starts lowcarbon index, investment consultantsslammed, CAPEX TrackerThe highlights of Day 2 at RI’s flagship London event.

by RI journalists | June 4th, 2015



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Above left: Frederic Hoogveld of Amundi

Above: Vigeo’s Nikki Gwilliam-Beeharee

Left: Quilter Cheviot’s William Buckhurst

Below left: Climate Bonds Initiative’sSean Kidney and Julia Haake of oekomresearch

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Bob Monks, the renowned corporategovernance champion, has backed theidea of suing pension funds to test if theyare failing in their fiduciary duty by notfactoring climate change risks into theirfund investments.

“If you want to get something done – ratherthan appear to – you bloody well sue; thatway you actually get their attention,” he toldthe RI Europe 2015 event in London thisweek. Monks, co-founder of InstitutionalShareholder Services (ISS) was speakingon a panel with John Hewson, the formerAustralian politician and economist whochairs the Asset Owners Disclosure Project(AODP) campaign.

In April the AODP formally launched aproject called the Climate and PensionsLegal Initiative (CPLI), which will work withpension fund members to challengetrustees and managers to fulfil their legalduty to protect investments from climaterisk.

Hewson told delegates: “We’re going tosponsor a case to bring a pension fund toaccount.”

He said the hope is that the test case willhelp to change the nature of fiduciary duty,though the AODP has not formallyidentified a pension fund target.

We’re going to sponsor acase to bring a pensionfund to account” –AODP’s Hewson.He said: “Some times the only way youcan get the attention of people is to hitthem over the head with a piece of[wooden] 3×2!”

Hewson said it is up to investors to “drivethe argument” on climate change giventhe lack of leadership from governmentsand the prospect that the “risk of a climateinduced financial crisis is very real”.

RI Europe 2015: Governance champion BobMonks backs suing pension funds over climateand fiduciary duty“This is the way you get something done,” says founder of ISS.

by Daniel Brooksbank | June 5th, 2015



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Above: Cherie Blair

Above right: Bob Monks

Right: Maggie Moore, Goldman SachsAsset Management

Below left: Anne-Catherine Husson-Traore of Novethic

Below middle: Narina Mnatsakanian ofMN and Marta Jankovic of APG

Congratulations on a reallysuccessful event. That finalpanel was amazing and a joy tosit through!

Cate Lamb, Head of Water, CDP

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• ABP• Achmea Fund

Management• Acre• Active Earth Investment

Management• Alecta• ALFI• Alliance Trust Investments• AllianceBernstein• Allianz Global Investors• Alpha Journal• AMF• AMNT• AMP Capital• Amundi• Anesvad• AP2• AP3• AP4• APG Asset Management• ArcelorMittal• Asset Owners Disclosure

Project• Association of Teachers and

Lecturers• ATP• Avans University of Applied

Sciences• AXA IM• AxFlow Ltd• Babcock International

Group Pension Scheme• Bank J. Safra Sarasin• BankTrack• BBC Pension Trust Limited• BC Investment

Management Corporation• BHP Billiton• Bloomberg• Blue Marine Foundation• BNP Paribas• BNP Paribas Investment

Partners• BNY Mellon• Borg Consulting• Boston Common Asset

Management• BP• Bridges Ventures• BrightonRock Group• British Airways Pension

Investment Management• Broadridge Financial

Solutions• BSR• BT Pension Scheme• BVCA• Caisse des depots• CalPERS• Cambridge Associates

• Camden Local AuthorityPension Fund

• Canada Pension PlanInvestment Board

• Capital Group• Caravel Management• Carbon Tracker Initiative• Caricom Development

Fund• CCLA Investment

Management• CDP• Central Finance Board of

the Methodist Church• CFA Institute• Chartered Institute of

Personnel andDevelopment

• Church of England EthicalInvestment Advisory Group

• Circularity Capital• Citi Investment Research• ClearBridge Investments• Client Earth• Climate Action• Climate Bonds Initiative• CLSA• Colonial First State Global

Asset Management• Columbia Threadneedle

Investments• Comgest• Communication Workers

Union• Deutsche Asset & Wealth

Management• Deutsche Bank• Deutsche Telekom• Didas Research• DNB• Doughty Hanson• Edmond de Rothschild

Group• EIRIS• Electricity Supply Pensions

Scheme• Elo Mutual Pension

Insurance Company• Environment Agency• Environment Agency

Pension Fund• ERAFP• ESG Communications• Esmee Fairbairn Foundation• Ethical Screening• EthiFinance• European Investment Bank• Eurosif• F&C Investments• FAIRR• Fidelity Investment

Management

524 delegates, representing 284organisations and 26 countriesattended RI Europe 2015By region:

United Kingdom 67%

Other 9%

Europe ex-UK 27%

By type of company:

Asset Manager/Bank 39%

Asset Owner/Fund Buyer/Fund Advisor 20%

Data Vendor 12%

Association 6%

NGO 6%

Academic 3%Corporate 2%

Other 12%

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• Financial Times• First State Investments• Fonds de Réserve pour les

Retraites• Franklin Templeton

Investments• FTSE ESG• Future Fund• German Research Center for

Artificial Intelligence• GES• GlaxoSmithKline• Global Green Invest• Global Impact Investing

Initiative• Goldman Sachs Asset

Management• GRESB• Grieg Investor• GTP• Hermes Equity Ownership

Services• Hermes Investment

Management• HLDC African Development• Holly Hill Trust• HowESG.co.uk• HSBC Bank• Hymans Robertson• IBM Retirement Funds -

Europe• ICMA Centre - Henley

Business School• IFC Asset Management

Company• IIGCC• Ilmarinen Mutual Pension

Insurance Company• IMPA ACT• Impact Economy• Independent• Inderst advisory• Inflection Point Capital

Management• ING• Insight Investment• Integriti Capital• Investment Association• Investor Responsibility

Research Center Institute• IPE• IPE-Quest• Isaac Newton Institute for

Mathematical Sciences• ISS• Janus Capital Group• Jeremy Coller Foundation• Joseph Rowntree Charitable

Trust• Joseph Rowntree Foundation• JP Morgan

• Jupiter Group• Kempen Capital Management• Kering• KfW Bankengruppe• Kleinwort Benson Investors• KLP Kapitalforvaltning• KPMG• LFPI• LGT Financial Services AG• Light Green Advisors• London & Capital• London School of Economics• Lower Austrian Chamber of

Agriculture• M&G Investments• MainStreet Partners• Man Group pension fund• Mariner Investment Group• Marks & Spencer• Mercer Investment

Consulting• Metanoia• MN• Montagu Private Equity• Morgan Stanley• MPYA DIASPORA BANKING

INITIATIVE• MSCI ESG Research• Natixis• NEST Corporation• Newton Investment

Management• Nicky Amos CSR Services Ltd• NN Group• NN IP• Nordea Asset Management• North East Scotland Pension

Fund• Northern Trust Asset

Management• Notenstein Private Bank• Nottingham University

Business School• Novethic• Nykredit Asset Management• NZ Super Fund• Ocean Capital• Oddo Securities• OECD• oekom research• Öhman• Old Mutual Investment

Group• Omnia Strategy• Ontario Teachers' Pension

Plan Board• OPTrust• OU Endowment

Management• Ownership Capital• Pearson Group Pension Plan

RI EUROPE 2015


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• Permian Global ResearchLimited

• PGGM• Pictet Asset Management• PIRC• PKA• Preventable Surprises• PRI Initiative• Price Waterhouse Coopers• Prius Partners• Prospect Union• QUICK Corp.• Quotient Investors• Rabobank• ReFine Research Charity• Regnan• Resonance• Rob Lake Advisors• Robeco• RobecoSAM• Rouse Consulting &

Research• Royal Bank of Scotland

Group Pension Fund• Royal London Asset

Management• RPMI Railpen Investments• Ruffer LLP• S&P Dow Jones Indices• Sarasin & Partners• Schroder Investment

Management• SciTeb• SD-M• SEB• Sense About Science• Seven Investment

Management• ShareAction• SharedImpact• Social Stock Exchange• SODALI• Soil Capital• Solaron Sustainability

Services• South Pole Carbon• South Yorkshire Pensions

Authority• SRI-CONNECT• Standard Life Investments• Strathclyde Pension Fund• Sustainable Business Group• Sustainable Insight Capital

Management• Sustainable Value Investors• Sustainalytics• Swedfund• Swedish Ministry of Finance• T Rowe Price International

• Takasaki City University ofEconomics

• TCAM Global• Temporis Capital• TH Real Estate• The Foundation• The Guardian• The International

Sustainability Unit• The Pensions Trust• The Prince's Charities ISU• THS Partners• TIAA-CREF Asset

Management• Towers Watson• Trades Union Congress• Triodos Investment

Management• Trucost• UBS Global Asset

Management• UK Green Investment Bank• UKSIF• UN Environment

Programme FinanceInitiative

• Unilever• Union Investment• Unipension• Universidade de São Paulo• University and College

Union• University of Edinburgh• University of Edinburgh

Business School• University of Leeds• University of Nottingham• University of Reading• USS (Universities

Superannuation Scheme)• USS Investment

Management• ValueEdge Advisors• Veolia• Verka Pensionskasse• Vigeo• Vontobel Asset

Management• Water Asset Management• Waterman Group• Wellcome Trust• Wespath Investment

Management• West Midlands Pension

Fund• Wheb Group Asset

Management• WWF-UK

Above: The RI Town Crier with Carlos Arias-Prieto of EIRIS

Below: Pablo Berrutti of Colonial First State Global AssetManagement

RI EUROPE 2015


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Top: Remy Briand, Janice Turner of theAMNT and Mark Chaloner of the WestMidlands Pension Fund

Above left: Cate Lamb of CDP, LaurenSmart of Trucost and Matthew Diserio ofWater Asset Management

Above: Helena Viñes Fiestas of BNPParibas

Left: (l to r) RI’s Daniel Brooksbank, CFAInstitute’s Josina Kamerling, Lucy Tusa ofMercer, Francois Passant of Eurosif andERAFP’s Philippe Desfossés

Meeting Zone Sponsor: RI Awards Sponsor: Charging Station Sponsor:

Mobile App Sponsor: Exhibitor: Lunch Sponsor:

Co-Sponsors:

Lead Sponsor:

Associate Sponsors:

Opening Night Reception Sponsors:

Supporting Organisations:

Afternoon Networking Break Sponsor:

Initiative

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Investments that hold water™

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ri europe 2015 - responsible investor · ri europe 2015 conference report july 2015 5 above: pia...

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