As our previous engagement and stewardship reports have shown, Ethical Partners has, since inception, had along standing commitment to using the funds we are privileged to manage to call for change in how ASX listed companies are addressing their impact on the world. This is a fundamental core of our approach, our investment process, and our purpose. As we note in the report, however, whilst there is an increasing focus by investors on engagements, the many of the systemic real-world crisis that these engagements are aiming to address continue to worsen, as greenwashing concerns also escalate. Cognisant of the need to therefore be increasingly able to show the tangible outcomes of our engagement and stewardship activities, this new report has an increased focus on showing where sustainable outcomes have occurred in portfolio companies with whom we have deeply engaged on the issue at hand.
Our introductory letter further digs into the difficulties in claiming attribution, and in tracking outcomes when many of these issues are long-term, “wicked” systemic problems – issues we are actively discussing solutions for with numerous investment leaders and collaborative initiatives like the PRI and RIAA. However, this report constitutes our bestefforts to show the engagement outcomes we know we have been able to contribute towards at least in part, through our engagement work, as well as our wider policy and civil society advocacy, as well as many cases where we know from company feedback in which Ethical Partners was able to be directly influential in creating change. We look forward to discussing these engagements with you over the coming months, as well as our current engagement focuses.
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