The €465bn Dutch civil service pension fund ABP is among several asset owner heavyweights that have recently added their name to a statement about the importance of long-term, sustainable growth and their expectations of companies and investors in achieving this vision.
The statement was released earlier this month by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund and the UK’s Universities Superannuation Scheme.
British Columbia Investment Management Corporation in Canada, Fonds de réserves pour les retraites in France, and RPMI Railpen in the UK were announced as new signatories last week.
Australia’s HESTA and UK auto-enrolment scheme NEST were revealed as further signatories today alongside ABP and the EAPF.
The statement is a call for companies and investors to demonstrate a commitment to long-term value creation and “acceleration,” respectively, to “keep short-termism at bay and drive sustainable economic growth for customers, beneficiaries, and society”.
Asset managers and companies are urged to rethink their strategies and improve their reporting about their interactions with “stakeholders, society, and the enviornment,” for example using frameworks such as those from the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board.
The full statement can be found here.
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