Responsible Investing at Bridgehouse

What Is Responsible Investing?
Responsible investing is the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into the investment process to help better manage risks and improve returns for clients.

What Are ESG Factors?
ESG factors refer to environmental, social and governance issues that investors can use to help evaluate a company. Companies that perform well in these areas, or are showing improvement, can benefit society while reducing risk and improving returns to shareholders.

ENVIRONMENTAL

  • Climate change & carbon emissions
  • Water & wastewater management
  • Air quality
  • Energy efficiency
  • Biodiversity & deforestation
  • Responsible packaging

SOCIAL

  • Employee diversity
  • Health & safety
  • Human rights
  • Labour standards
  • Data privacy
  • Societal harm of product use

GOVERNANCE

  • Board independence & diversity
  • Executive pay
  • Corporate ethics
  • Accounting practices
  • Legal & regulatory compliance
  • Shareholder rights

Are There Different Approaches to Responsible Investing?
Yes, there is a wide variety of approaches to responsible investing that a manager could implement. At Bridgehouse, we believe it’s essential to conduct ongoing due diligence and to understand the approach used by your investment manager. In general, we view responsible investing as a pyramid with different levels – building upon one another.

 

IMPACT
Attempts to deliver positive and measurable social or environmental benefits (e.g., affordable housing, medical facilities, renewables, etc.)

THEMES-BASED
Embeds sustainable themes-based assessment in portfolio construction (e.g., gender equality, low carbon, clean water, etc.)

SUSTAINABLE
Invests in companies that support a greener, healthier, safer and more equitable world

ESG INTEGRATION
Evaluates ESG risks and opportunities as part of the fundamental assessment of a business

PHILOSOPHY
As long-term stewards of client capital, takes responsibility to understand complex relationships between business, society and the environment

Responsible Investing Pyramid

What Is Bridgehouse’s Approach to Responsible Investing?
Bridgehouse encourages responsible investing within the asset management industry by partnering with investment managers that evaluate and integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues into their investment process and allocation of client capital. Therefore, at a minimum, the managers on the Bridgehouse platform are positioned in the “ESG Integration” level on the Responsible Investing Pyramid.

For more details on each investment manager’s approach to Responsible Investing, please see below.

OUR MANAGERS’ APPROACHES TO RESPONSIBLE INVESTING

What Is Brandes’ Approach to Responsible Investing?

ESG integration

  • Fundamental, company-specific analysis:
    • All research team members evaluate ESG-specific criteria in their estimation of intrinsic value
    • Leverage third-party, ESG reports in the valuation process
  • Brandes ESG Oversight Committee:
    • Actively engages company management teams, boards of directors and other institutional shareholders on material ESG-related issues
    • Establishes and annually reviews broad objectives and practices to ensure investment staff has the resources and training to stay current on relevant developments related to ESG

Member or signatory to:

  • United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI)
  • International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN)
  • Japan Stewardship Code

Resources

Responsible Investing at Brandes
ESG: What It Means At Brandes

What Is GQG Partners’ Approach to Responsible Investing?

ESG integration

  • GQG Partners integrates ESG criteria throughout their investment process:
    • Incorporates non-traditional company research by employing analysts with backgrounds in investigative journalism
    • Analysts gather information by, among other things, interviewing a company’s former employees, regulators, unions and suppliers to gauge social concerns including labour management, employee safety practices and corporate governance issues

Member or signatory to:

  • United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI)

Resources

GQG’s Forward-Looking Approach to ESG
Let’s Talk Stocks: ESG The GQG Way

What Is Lazard’s Approach to Responsible Investing?

ESG integration

  • Materiality Mapping
    • To ensure a systematic and firm-wide approach to ESG research, Lazard has built its own proprietary process called “Materiality Mapping,” which helps identify ESG risks and opportunities on a sector-by-sector basis

Member or signatory to:

  • United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI)
  • Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC)
  • Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TFCFD)
  • Net Zero Asset Managers initiative
  • CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion Pledge
  • International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN)
  • Japan Stewardship Code
  • UK Stewardship Code
  • Korea Stewardship Code

Resources

Sustainable Investing at Lazard
The Question Is… What Are the 5 Sustainable Investing Myths Investors Should Watch Out For?

What Is Sionna’s Approach to Responsible Investing?

ESG integration

  • Research Questionnaire
    • Uses a robust proprietary Research Questionnaire, which includes ESG questions to ensure that any potential issues are raised and addressed during fundamental research and analysis

Member or signatory to:

  • United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI)
  • Canadian Coalition for Good Governance (CCGG)

Resources

ESG at Sionna

What Is T. Rowe Price’s Approach to Responsible Investing?

ESG integration

  • Integration
    • ESG analysis is embedded in the investment process
    • Analysts & Portfolio Managers consider ESG factors in their investment decisions
  • Collaboration
    • ESG & regulatory research specialists within investment research teams
    • The specialists work with the analysts & Portfolio Managers where ESG issues are particularly significant
  • Materiality
    • Focus on ESG factors they believe are most likely to have a material impact on performance

Member or signatory to:1

  • Council of Institutional Investors (CII)
  • Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)
  • UK Stewardship Code
  • Japan Stewardship Code Signatory
  • Associação de Investidores no Mercado de Capitais (AMEC)
  • Asia Corporate Governance Association (ACGA)
  • UK Investor Forum
  • Investor Stewardship Group (ISG)
  • Japan Stewardship Initiative
  • Investment Association Climate Change Working Group
  • Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC)
  • PLSA Stewardship Advisory Group
  • Emerging Markets Investors Alliance
  • Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA)
  • Farm Animal Investment Risk & Return (FAIRR)
  • Access to Medicine Index
  • Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Consortium (Japan)
  • Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN)
  • Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Alliance
  • UN Global Compact Signatory
  • International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN)
  • IMEA (Investment Management Education Alliance) ESG Committee
  • 30% Club Investor Group – UK Chapter
  • International Capital Market Association (ICMA)
  • Member of the ICMA Principles - Green Bond Principles (GBP), Social Bond Principles (SBP), Sustainability Bond Guidelines (SBG) and Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles (SLBP)
  • Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative
  • Access to Nutrition Initiative
  • Japan Impact-driven Financing Initiative
  • Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TFND)
1At least one T. Rowe Price entity is a member of the organizations listed.

Resources

ESG Integration Approach Video

2021 ESG Investing Annual Report