Our annual engagement review provides an opportunity to reflect on the past year and share the impact our engagement has helped create, as well as to outline our focus areas as we continue our work in 2026.
Greenbank Engagement Review 2025-26
7 May 2026
Article last updated 7 May 2026.
"Greenbank has long believed that capital, when deployed with purpose and care, can play a meaningful role in shaping a more sustainable and equitable world. At a time when environmental and social challenges are becoming increasingly interconnected, the need for responsible investment approaches that actively support positive outcomes has never been greater."
Kate Elliot, Head of Responsible Investment Centre of Excellence
EXPLORE THE FULL ENGAGEMENT REVIEW
Taking an active approach to engagement is a core part of our service and complements our investment analysis, as we aim to create and preserve long-term value for our clients.
Our engagement action plan for 2025 was ambitious, spanning three priority themes on climate, nature and human rights. We also highlight our impact from our engagement in 2025 where we observed progress from engagement activity with 150 companies across a range of topics.
We share our impact case studies which illustrate how our investment approach on Health, Nature, and Human Rights translates into engaging with both companies and the broader systems they operate in. We believe that having stronger policies on healthy food will reward those companies that are taking action to protect and inform consumers. Our human rights work has extended beyond supply chain due diligence in to the rapidly evolving world of digital rights, which requires tackling the ethical considerations of deploying artificial intelligence. Nature is on the agenda of most investors, and our assessment of portfolio impacts and dependencies has led us to focus on the pharmaceuticals sector and the aquatic environment. We also articulate how we interpret the systemic risk lens in our work, reflecting the interconnected nature of sustainability issues. Greenbank engages with multiple participants, to support evolving industry standards whilst advocating for policy reform, and setting expectations for companies.
The report also summarises our engagement priorities for 2026, which lie under three broad themes of climate, nature and human rights. Alongside our core engagement themes, the review highlights the role of active stewardship in managing long-term risk, strengthening governance, and translating sustainability commitments into real-world outcomes.
We take a considered approach to selecting engagement projects, focusing on areas that matter most to our clients, are relevant across our portfolios, align with our sustainable development themes; such as Human Rights, Energy and Climate, Habitats and Ecosystems, and Workforce and have the potential to drive impact beyond individual company engagement through collaboration and market-wide influence.
Our engagement activity is a core way we support long-term value creation for clients by signalling that ethical, sustainable and impact issues are financially material and central to effective risk management, particularly in a more challenging and politicised sustainability landscape. Educational events and collaboration with external partners play an important role in extending our influence and driving broader progress on sustainable finance issues.
Some of our highlights from 2025 include:
- Our involvement with the Investor Coalition on Food Policy’ successful push for mandatory health and sustainability reporting in the UK.
- Continuing to see greater alignment with net zero trajectories amongst Greenbank holdings as climate milestones are achieved following engagement.
- Seeing the technology companies we are engaging with deploying human rights assessments to track emerging ethical AI issues.
We are always open to feedback on our engagement strategy from clients and stakeholders, so please get in touch if you would like to find out more or discuss anything mentioned in the report.
