Brunel realises ambitions across Responsible Investment and Climate Change
- Outcomes Report provides insight into Brunel’s RI progress against ambitions
- Climate Action Plan (TCFD) marks Brunel’s progress on its climate policy
- Carbon Metrics Report illustrates climate exposure of all listed equity portfolios
Brunel Pension Partnership Limited (Brunel) has shown its commitment to investor transparency by publishing three reports highlighting its progress and ambitions across several Responsible Investment themes, especially climate change.
Outcomes Report
The 2021 Responsible Investment and Stewardship Outcomes Report shows all our stakeholders, particularly our clients and their beneficiaries, how we are performing against our own RI principles and policies. It covers how we’ve addressed issues like Covid, social inequality, modern human slavery, cyber security, AI and fossil fuel lending in banks.
We are proud to have achieved another year of at least 7% carbon intensity reduction versus our 2019 baseline for all of our active portfolios and all but one of index tracking portfolios. Moreover, the Brunel Aggregate Portfolio had an efficiency of 22% versus the benchmark, up from 15.4% a year earlier. We are proud to report another improvement, but especially proud to report an even better improvement rate.
Other highlights included:
- Increase for percentage of women on boards of companies held in our active portfolios
- Engagement on 3,101 issues at 881 companies – achieving 1,050 milestones
- Success in engaging banks on fossil fuel lending to change practices
- Piloting of reporting on UN Sustainable Development Goals
Brunel published its inaugural Outcomes Report in 2020 – making comparisons easier this time around.
“This second edition shows our progress across several key themes and gives strong evidence of the time and energy we commit to following through on our core values,” said Laura Chappell, CEO at Brunel. “It also enables us to think about where we could be more effective and how we need to develop our thinking and our approach.”
Climate Change Action Plan Report (TCFD)
Brunel has also published its first Climate Action Plan Report, in line with the TCFD recommendations, as set out by the taskforce established by the G20. This year, we committed to be Net Zero by 2050 and has made excellent progress against this goal.
“Our ambition is to provide leadership on climate investing and, through that leadership, to help transform the industry to make it fit for a Net Zero world,” said Faith Ward. “We all know how urgent the problem is and how much finance needs to be part of the solution. Brunel is a strong advocate for global mandatory disclosure to TCFD, and we hope this report demonstrates that commitment.”
In the year of COP 26 (see video), we hope this publication encourages others in the industry to make a similar commitment on climate transparency.
Carbon Metrics Report
We also perform an annual deep dive on the carbon exposure of all our active holdings, providing an extra level of transparency across our portfolios. This more granular approach enables us to see whether our climate principles and resulting investment approach has indeed translated into lower carbon exposures.
The Carbon Metrics Report shows that the carbon intensity of our Aggregate Portfolio is 22% more efficient than its benchmark.[1]
“The enormous amount of data and analysis we feed into the report enables anyone to take a forensic look at the climate impact of our holdings,” said Laura Hobbs, Responsible Investment Manager at Brunel. “To outdo our benchmark so significantly is a major achievement and proof of the direction of travel. What always matters most, however, is what happens next.”
For further information on these reports or if you have any questions, please contact Alex Monro, Head of Communications, Brunel Pension Partnership. To view our latest Annual Report, see Annual Report coverage.
[1] Weighted Average Carbon Intensity of the Brunel Aggregate Portfolio has a relative efficiency of 22+%. See report for further details.