Investing
Responsibly
Responsibly
Brunel aims to deliver strong investment returns over the long term, protecting our clients’ interests through contributing to a more sustainable and resilient financial system, which supports sustainable economic growth and a thriving society.
As responsible investors, we recognise that every company or asset we invest in operates interdependently with the economy, civil society and the physical environment. Considering whether these interdependencies create financially material risks or opportunities is a core part of responsible investment. But our approach goes wider than just looking at individual investments. It also applies to the beliefs and principles of the investors themselves, and to using these beliefs and principles to guide investors’ strategic thinking, so that we are embedding them all the way along the investment chain. Our approach to Responsible Investment is to effectively manage risk and generate sustainable, long-term returns. Our actions are predicated on fulfilling our core legal obligations – our fiduciary duty – to the client funds and their beneficiaries.
Investing responsibly is at the heart of everything we do. We take a long-term view of our fiduciary duty, as do our clients, and believe that the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks, is most likely to deliver successful long-term performance. Each of our portfolios is outcome-based and intended to offer exposure to a particular asset class or sub-class, or particular theme or approach. Implementation is outsourced to selected asset managers.
Investing in a world worth living in underpins our approach to investing, how we engage with our managers and strategic partners, and how we conduct business. Find out more about our approach to Responsible Investment.
To ensure that we practise what we preach, we have 12 Investment Principles.
The purpose of the principles is to provide a framework for the fund structure, operations, manager selection, monitoring and reporting. The principles are also designed to meet the Department for Communities and Local Government’s Local Government Pension Scheme: Investment Reform Criteria and Guidance and the requirements and expectations of Financial Conduct Authority. They can be applied to all asset classes, although the detail of operation will vary by asset class.
The principles do not impose any restrictions on type, nature of companies or assets held within the Portfolios. The principles do place an expectation that recognised best practice standards in governance, risk management, stewardship and value for money will be delivered. They are designed to ensure the effective and efficient delivery of each fund’s investment strategy and are commensurate with the size of the combined asset pool. It is anticipated that the principles will support each fund in the delivery of their investment strategy statements.
We understand that long term relationships are essential to deliver long term value creation. Developing these relationships is critical to both our and our client’s success. We undertake a rigorous process to select and onboard our asset managers, aligned with our beliefs and ways of working.
As part of our engagement with managers we make clear our expectations in our Asset Managers Accord. The accord details a number of areas, such as:
Offering our clients a broad range of portfolio options allows them the flexibility to meet their own strategic investment needs, whilst equipping us to manage risk and generate sustainable, long-term returns.
A structure of more than 24 portfolios allows clients to fine-tune asset allocation, offer diversification opportunities, and reflect market developments. We offer a suite of portfolios specifically selected to provide a reasonable level of consolidation, while also giving our clients the freedom to choose how they allocate their assets. Each portfolio is outcome-based and intended to offer exposure to a particular asset class or sub-class, theme or approach.