By including a company in a fund’s portfolio, we are not endorsing it as having a completely positive social impact. Indeed, there are few perfect companies in the world.
We invest in companies with a combination of controversies and praiseworthy initiatives when we feel that, on balance, progress is being made toward long-term benefits for society or the environment. We seek to exclude from our funds companies with mixed records where negatives substantially outweigh the positives. Nevertheless, there are a wide variety of companies in our funds’ portfolios with mixed records, and some may be involved in substantial controversies from time to time.
By using social and environmental standards to make investment decisions, responsible investors are stimulating demands for powerful global corporations to pay close attention to these issues and to disclose their policies and performance in these areas. An increased level of transparency is critical to establishing a higher level of corporate accountability.
You may wish to review a list of the companies in our portfolio to decide if they meet your standards. We post each Fund’s complete portfolio holdings on our website on a quarterly basis. The complete list is also available in the Funds’ Annual and Semi-Annual Reports.
Learn more about how we choose our investments.
In addition to applying social and environmental standards to all of our investments, we seek to work with companies in our portfolios to improve their social and environmental performance through dialogue with corporate management on these issues when appropriate. We also seek to vote all company proxies in accordance with published guidelines covering a wide range of social, environmental, and corporate governance matters. Visit our Engagement section to learn more.