In this annual Engagement review, we provide a snapshot of our activities in 2022 and outline our focus areas as we continue our work in 2023.
Rathbone Greenbank Engagement review 2022-23
16 June 2023
Article last updated 7 September 2023.
View Rathbone Greenbank Engagement review 2022-23
The latest evidence from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) outlines that unless immediate and large-scale action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the world will not be on-track to meet the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. This stark warning was reinforced by World Meteorological Organisation research released in May 2023, which showed that this temperature threshold may be breached within the next five years.
Social challenges are equally pressing. In January 2023, the World Economic Forum identified the cost of living crisis as the most severe global risk over the next two years, while inequality continues to fuel divisions and hamper progress on long-term sustainability challenges, both within individual countries and at a global scale.
As part owners of the companies and funds in which we invest we should be active in our stewardship, not just encouraging improvements in corporate behaviour but more boldly pushing for change.
Investors have an important role to play. As part owners of the companies and funds in which we invest we should be active in our stewardship, not just encouraging improvements in corporate behaviour but more boldly pushing for change.
The term 'engagement' captures all the approaches used by investors to influence the companies in which they invest, or to shape the wider policy environment. Engagement ranges from meetings with company management, through voting at shareholder meetings, to tabling resolutions at Annual General Meetings (AGMs) and lobbying policymakers - to encourage improvement.
For over 20 years Greenbank have utilised all of these approaches, adapting our focus as we endeavour to create maximum impact as investors. On our clients' behalf we work to address company-specific and systemic risks, encourage best practice, and improve social and environmental wellbeing, whilst focussing investment in companies and funds that align with our eight sustainable development themes.
In this annual Engagement review, we provide a snapshot of our activities in 2022 and outline our focus areas as we continue our work in 2023.
You can read our previous Engagement review and stay updated with our engagement activity here on our website.
