Stewardship and engagement

Engagement with companies and policymakers is a vital part of our role as ethical and sustainable investors. It’s an effective lever to bring about positive social and environmental outcomes. Engaging at this level also enhances our ability to mitigate sustainability risks, empowering our clients to use their money as a force for good.

Our active approach to engagement is a core part of our service. It complements our investment analysis and enables us to advocate for positive and lasting change on our clients’ behalf. Our clients recognise that our engagement on their behalf allows them to be part of a bigger movement for change. The projects we choose must present a clear strategy for achieving effective outcomes and are considered against factors such as:

alignment to our eight sustainable development themes and the long-term changes we aim for in each
the level of exposure across Greenbank client portfolios and the extent to which individual issues are important to clients
the prospect for deeper engagement on a more focused range of issues
opportunities to ‘prime the market’ and act as a catalyst for further investor engagement by drawing attention to overlooked issues and building consensus on how to best address them.

Because we recognise the power of partnerships where appropriate, we will collaborate with Non-Governmental Organisations and other members of the sustainable investment community to increase the reach and impact of our engagement activities.

We engage at company-specific and thematic levels, and activity is set in the context of long-term dialogue and ownership. We always aim for open and constructive dialogue, in a spirit of longer-term partnership and support, but we are never reticent in asking searching questions.

We agree objectives and review progress against them each quarter. We can then opt to escalate our discussions and activities if necessary. While we aim to stay invested and make effective use of our shareholder voice and voting rights, divestment is always an option.

Any new insights from our engagement activities are fed directly back into the investment process. Our clients receive a regular and detailed summary of the engagement activities that are relevant for their portfolio, and we look for opportunities to represent their views and create positive change on their behalf.

You can read more about our stewardship and engagement activity (including our voting record with the Rathbones Group) in our latest annual Greenbank Engagement Review on the website.

We also engage with policymakers and data providers. You can read more about our approach to engagement in our engagement policy and our engagement review.

Our 2025 action plan highlights our programme of thematic engagement, which is closely linked to our eight sustainable development themes. We also operate an ongoing programme of tactical engagement with the companies in which we invest. As part of our ongoing proprietary company research our in-house Ethical Sustainable and Impact research team identifies specific risks and proactively engages with companies to address these concerns. We divide our projects into priority and secondary groupings. For priority projects, Greenbank play a leading role in shaping the overall direction and strategy of the project. With secondary projects, we aim to still play an active role in progressing objectives but will generally join existing collaborative engagements and play a less active role in setting the strategy.

We have chosen the following engagement projects to focus on as a priority for 2025.

Priority engagement project - Climate change

Climate change

Purpose

Why has it been selected?

Overview of project

A core focus of our direct engagement with companies will be encouraging them to develop a robust climate strategy, aligned to the core and additional criteria laid out in the Net Zero Investment Framework.

We will continue to monitor priority companies and escalate engagement where we have concerns around the pace at which they are progressing towards full compliance with the Net Zero Investment Framework criteria. This will involve collaborating closely with the Rathbones stewardship team, to ensure wider coverage across companies and greater impact.

We will continue to participate in the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change’s (IIGCC) Net Zero Engagement initiative, a collaborative engagement which focuses on major emitters that fall beyond the Climate Action 100+ focus list. Through this, we will actively support engagement with two companies. Greenbank will also continue to support engagement with one company as part of the Climate Action 100+ initiative.

We will also continue to engage with the funds we invest in, to ensure that they adopt ambitious net zero strategies. We conduct an annual assessment of funds across a range of climate-related criteria, including net zero targets, carbon footprint, the alignment of fund holdings to net zero and how they consider the impact of transition and physical climate risk. As part of this focus on funds, we will continue to be an active member of the UK Wealth Managers on Climate Group, which aims to engage collaboratively with asset managers on climate to support greater ambition within the industry.

We will also continue to support the work of the Financing a Just Transition Alliance and look for opportunities to join projects and provide insight. In the meantime, ‘just transition*’ principles will be integrated into our direct engagement with companies.

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^{*A just transition seeks to ensure that the substantial benefits of a green economy transition are shared widely, while also supporting those who stand to lose economically – be they countries, regions, industries, communities, workers or consumers.}

Core expectation of companies

We align our expectations to the IIGCC’s Net Zero Investment Framework (NZIF). This framework outlines the key components of a net zero strategy and transition plan. NZIF’s company level assessment and target-setting methodologies are based upon a common framework of criteria and categories. There are four categories of alignment: not aligned, committed to aligning, aligning to a net zero pathway, aligned to a net zero pathway.

Underpinning this, NZIF uses a set of ten criteria to assess companies. These include setting short, medium and long-term science-based targets, having strong climate governance in place and allocating sufficient capital to decarbonisation, as well as ensuring companies are transitioning in a fair and inclusive way.

Priority engagement project - Nature

Nature

Why has it been selected?

Nature has been chosen as a priority engagement focus to support us in managing our nature-related financial risks and opportunities (transition, physical and systemic). Financial institutions and companies are still at a relatively nascent position in understanding their nature-related impacts and dependencies across the value chain. Engagement can play a key role in understanding the key value drivers and risks associated with nature and encouraging companies to reduce and reverse nature loss throughout their operations and supply chains.

1. Biodiversity risks and opportunities

Purpose

To encourage companies to mitigate biodiversity-related risks and to reduce or reverse their negative impacts on biodiversity, following the mitigation hierarchy.

Overview of project

Engagements with priority companies will encourage them to take robust actions to address their biodiversity impacts, aligned to best practice guidance in emerging frameworks from Nature Action 100 (NA100) and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures. Priority companies will be selected based on the impact and dependency assessment we conduct, using ENCORE data*. We will engage both collaboratively, through NA100 and directly with companies. Depending on the specific company context, engagement will cover a range of issues including pollution, water and deforestation.

We will also continue to monitor the performance of the financial institutions we engaged with in 2023 on the topic of deforestation. We will assess how they are progressing in the six areas set out in Global Canopy’s Finance Sector Roadmap and escalate where we feel sufficient progress has not been made.

Greenbank will also continue our membership of the Finance for Biodiversity foundation, continuing to participate in the public policy and targets setting working groups and for the first year, also joining the impact assessment working group.

Core expectations of companies

We rely on best practice standards such as NA100, Forest 500 (Global Canopy) and the Finance Sector Roadmap (Deforestation Free Finance) to set our performance and disclosure expectations of companies in our investment universe.

The NA100 expectations for companies are a set of six actions that will help to protect and restore nature and ecosystems and are related to the areas of ambition, assessment, targets, implementation, governance and engagement.

Global Canopy’s annual Forest 500 report assesses the performance of 350 companies and 150 financial institutions who are included in the benchmark due to their significant potential exposure to tropical deforestation. Companies are assessed using a range of criteria, including deforestation commitment strength, associated human rights abuses and implementation and reporting, including transparency in reporting progress against deforestation and human rights commitments.

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^{*ENCORE sets out how the economy – sectors, subsectors and activities – depends and impacts on nature. Financial institutions can use data from ENCORE to identify nature-related risks they are exposed to through their lending, underwriting and investment in high-risk industries and sub-industries. ENCORE was developed and is maintained by Global Canopy, UNEP FI and UNEP-WCMC.}

2. Building an enabling policy environment for private sector action on nature

Purpose

To improve the enabling environment for companies to act to reverse nature loss and demonstrate there is private sector support for effective long-term policymaking on this issue.

Overview of project

Greenbank will continue our membership of the Green Finance Institute’s UK Financial Institutions Nature Group and will consult with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs officials on how to accelerate private sector investment into nature restoration. Plans and exact activities for 2025 are still to be confirmed.

We will also continue to engage with the UK Government as it develops its National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, part of its commitment to the Global Biodiversity Framework, agreed at COP15 in 2022.

Priority engagement project - Human rights

Human rights

Why has it been selected?

Human rights due diligence is an issue which is often overlooked by investors and some companies, beyond the presence of policies. This engagement aims to continue to make the investment case for human rights due diligence and hold companies to account in their progress against the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which are broadly recognised as the gold standard for human rights due diligence. The digital inclusion and AI focus will also allow us to better understand the risks associated with the development and deployment of AI technologies and act on them.

1. Human rights due dilligence

Purpose

To communicate the importance we place on human rights due diligence to the companies in which we invest, and to encourage companies to adopt the best practice as set out in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (the UN Guiding Principles).

Overview of project

We will continue to engage with companies on their approach to human rights due diligence, based on an assessment of this against best practice as set out within the UN Guiding Principles.

This will include a review of companies identified as priority, considering exposure across Greenbank client portfolios and prioritising higher risk sectors with significant human rights impacts and risks. We will then produce updated scorecard assessments of existing human rights disclosures using Greenbank’s proprietary scorecard assessment, based on the UN Guiding Principles. We will also engage with priority companies to communicate the importance of human rights governance, due diligence, and remediation and to encourage progress against tailored recommendations. We will continue to hold companies to account towards meeting best practice and commend progress made where appropriate.

We will also continue to review the industry landscape in terms of collaborative investor engagements which may support our aims on this engagement, as well as regulatory changes and opportunities for policy development. We will also continue to monitor progress of companies against the CCLA Modern Slavery benchmark, supporting Rathbones Group's ongoing engagement on this issue.

Core expectations of companies

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights detail the best practice for companies in managing human rights risks, and as such, we expect our investee companies to be actively pursuing progress towards meeting these fully. This incorporates supply chain disclosure, policy, human rights impact assessments, auditing, grievance, and remedy.

This may in the shorter term be reflected in insights the business shares privately with us on their internal work, but in time will also need to translate into improvements against our scorecard assessments. Where relevant, specific external human rights benchmarks may also be reflected on to our analysis (such as the World Benchmarking Alliance Corporate Human Rights Benchmark), but predominantly our assessment of each company’s progress against the UN Guiding Principles will be based on our own scorecard assessments.

In addition, some businesses may be in scope for the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Direction (CSDDD), mandating the pillars of the UN Guiding Principles. These businesses have a legal obligation to meet the requirements of this new regulation. As the regulatory landscape develops elsewhere there will be increasing mandatory requirements to embody the UN Guiding Principles.

2. Digital inclusion and artificial intelligence (AI)

Purpose

To support the adoption of AI regulation globally which is focused on AI safety, ethics and responsible AI use, as well as transparency and accountability. To encourage companies to improve their policies and processes around digital rights and ethical AI. Digital rights are an extension of the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations as applied to the online world.

Overview of project

Greenbank will continue to work with the World Benchmarking Alliance’s Collective Impact Coalition (CIC) on Ethical AI. The CIC aims to bring multiple stakeholders together to focus on the critical issues to advance corporate practices and bring about systems change through direct collaborative engagement. This engagement aims to encourage investee companies to implement the formal adoption of policies, processes and disclosure related to ethical development and application of AI.

Greenbank will continue to support engagement for two companies. The overall objective is to focus on increasing the commitment of these companies to the ethical development and application of AI, as evidenced by related public disclosure. In addition, our engagement also seeks to raise awareness on the importance of the issue and increase the understanding of current challenges.

Core expectations of companies

Frameworks such as the Ranking Digital Rights scorecard and the WBA CIC on Ethical AI help guide our expectations of companies. These frameworks allow us to align with the most relevant topics and examples of best practice in this sector. Companies will be assessed based on their commitment to and implementation of ethical AI practices, as reflected in their publicly available principles, governance structures, operational frameworks, and practices regarding human rights and AI oversight.

In addition to frameworks, robust regulation is critical to address the risk of AI. The EU AI Act is the first-ever legal framework on AI with the aim of fostering trustworthy AI in Europe and beyond. It ensures that AI systems respect fundamental rights, safety, and ethical principles and by addressing risks of very powerful and impactful AI models. Greenbank fully supports this regulation and will assess how companies adopt this regulation going forward.

Secondary engagement projects

Health

1. Investor Coalition on Food Policy

Purpose

To advocate for well-designed regulation and standard setting for the food sector to promote greater transparency and accountability, as well as changing food policy and business practices — all of which are required to support the creation of a healthy, sustainable and affordable food system.

Overview of the project

We will continue to play an active role in the Investor Coalition on Food Policy, remaining part of the advisory group and the co-chairing the policy working group, although we will be handing over our current position as chair of the coalition in April 2025. Key activities for 2025 will include continuing to contribute to the UK Government’s Food Data Transparency Partnership (FDTP) which aims to improve the environmental sustainability and healthiness of food and drink through better food data and engaging cross-party to make the investor case for the agreed outputs of FDTP to be mandatory instead of voluntary. You can read more about our work in this area in our report Sustainable food systems and systemic risks.

2. Nutrition

Purpose

To improve company disclosure of key health metrics, which help investors to understand how retailers and manufacturers are improving the access and availability of healthy products through reformulation, product innovation, and promotions.

Overview of the project

Greenbank will continue to engage with a small set of food retailers and manufacturers via ShareAction’s Long-term Investors in People’s Health (LIPH) programme and the Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI) where collaborative engagement opportunities arise.

Core expectations of companies

We primarily rely on the Access to Nutrition initiative’s (ATNi) Index to assess companies on this issue. The ATNi index assesses and ranks the world’s largest manufacturers and retailers on their nutrition-related commitments, performance and disclosure. It assesses companies across a range of criteria including product healthiness, marketing to children and affordable nutrition.

3. Access to Medicine

Purpose

To encourage pharmaceutical companies to expand access to their essential healthcare products in low- and middle-income countries.

Overview of the project

We will continue to support engagement coordinated by the Access to Medicine Foundation and lead engagement with 1-3 companies following the release of the latest Access to Medicine Index (exact focus companies to be confirmed in early 2025).

Core expectations of companies

We rely on the Access to Medicine Index to define our expectations in this area. This analytical framework is used to assess, measure and rank 20 of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies’ efforts to expand access to medicine in low-and middle-income countries. It assesses performance across a range of areas including governance of access, research and development and product delivery.

Workforce

Purpose

To ensure companies are providing quality work to employees, including providing a living wage. Also focusing on improving company disclosure on work-related issues and practices with the aim of increasing the provision of good jobs. Several issues will be covered including labour rights, fair wages, diversity, equity and inclusion and investment in the workforce.

Overview of the project

1. Good Work Coalition

We will continue to support engagement coordinated by ShareAction’s Good Work Coalition where relevant opportunities arise. This will include engagement on topics such as the living wage and ethnicity pay gap reporting.

Core expectations of companies

We align our expectations with standards set by a variety of foundations and standard setting boards, including the Living Wage Foundation and The Good Work Coalition. This includes issues such as a commitment to paying a living wage, providing secure work, a focus on diverse employee representation and providing support for lower paid workers during the cost-of-living crisis.

2. Building an enabling policy environment for private sector action on workforce-related issues and worker health

Greenbank will continue to support the development of policy to improve company disclosures on work-related issues and practices. Additionally, Greenbank will continue to contribute to consultations on the Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD), a global framework on key social and inequality-related concepts which is currently under development. Greenbank will also look for opportunities to contribute to the International Sustainability Standards Board’s (ISSB) preliminary research into a human capital standard, to support the interoperability between emerging reporting frameworks.

Circular economy

Purpose

To support a transition to a circular economy for plastics by supporting the creation of an ambitious and legally binding United Nations treaty to end plastic pollution. We will also encourage companies to eliminate unnecessary plastics, while increasing recycling and the replacement of plastics with greener alternatives.

Overview of the project

Greenbank is part of the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty (BCGPT) that is supporting the development of the first ambitious, effective, and legally binding United Nations treaty to end plastic pollution. As a member, Greenbank will continue to feed into ongoing consultations.
In addition, Greenbank has also become a member of a collaborative engagement group coordinated by the Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO). This group focuses on fast-moving consumer goods and grocery retail sectors to bring production and consumption of plastics within the limits of the planetary boundaries and alignment with the Paris Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Core expectations of companies

We primarily rely on expectations developed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and VBDO for this issue. This includes commitments to circulate products and materials as well as eliminate hazardous chemicals and waste throughout the value chain, commit to a reduction of single-use plastic packaging and publicly support a Global Plastics Treaty, among other issues.

Animal welfare

Purpose

To improve company and policy approaches to farm animal welfare management, performance and disclosure over time.

Overview of project

As a member of the Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare, Greenbank will continue to support letters to 150 food companies assessed as part of its benchmark. Greenbank will also continue to provide feedback on BBFAW’s benchmark consultations and support future collaborative policy advocacy opportunities, including continuing to call for European Union legislators to strengthen animal welfare legislation.

Core expectations of companies

Companies will be assessed against the BBFAW benchmark’s evolving expectations on improving animal-specific welfare standards in supply chains, policy commitments, targets, disclosure, governance, and reducing reliance on animal sourced foods.

Insights

17 June 2025

The Earth Convention Live — Oceans and Rivers, 17 June

Greenbank and Rathbones are delighted to partner with 5x15 for The Earth Convention 2025, a three-part series offering insights into the urgent issues facing our changing world. The second session 'Oceans and Rivers' will explore the relationship between human civilisation and the Earth’s oceans and rivers.

Find out more

1 min

Illustration of hands placing solar panels with intersection of panels a crossroad and one corner field containing wind turbines

23 April 2025

Green Shoots webinar: Renewables at a crossroads

Can the energy transition stay on track? Our April live lunchtime webinar ‘Renewables at a crossroads’ explored the opportunities and risks within the renewables sector and the effects that current global politics have on the global clean energy transition.

Find out more

2 mins

8 April 2025

Sustainability update March 2025

The Cali Fund, established at COP16, has been launched to support biodiversity conservation through contributions from industries using genetic data. An updated biodiversity plan from the UK aims to meet global targets by 2030 despite concerns about progress, and ahead of COP30, Brazil's climate summit CEO called for year-round action, while the UK considers linking its carbon market with the EU to address revenue shortfalls.

Find out more

6 mins

8 April 2025

The Earth Convention Live — Energy and Finance

Greenbank and Rathbones are delighted to partner with 5x15 for The Earth Convention 2025, a three-part series offering insights into the urgent issues facing our changing world. The first session ‘Energy and Finance’ will reflect on the future of energy.

Find out more

1 min

Stewardship and engagement

Voting for change

Greenbank engagement action plan 2025