Annual Sustainability Report
ESG integration and stewardship have long been an important part of our investment approach. As long-term investors, we have always recognised the need to understand, analyse and assess all aspects of a company’s operations and practices. Long-term success depends upon sound processes alongside robust governance.
In recent years, scrutiny of these non-financial metrics has increased significantly as has our need to report upon our efforts. This report demonstrates our approach to ESG integration and stewardship. It documents our proxy voting and engagement activity, as well as summarising the work we have undertaken over the past year to improve upon our own processes and to challenge ourselves to do better.
This report also serves as our response to the UK Stewardship Code.
ANNUAL SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2022
When it comes to reviewing the developments of 2022, the French phrase “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” comes to mind. On the one hand, the world has changed dramatically around us. The return of warfare in Europe and the ensuing energy crisis have changed the political and economic in multiple spheres around the world and the return of double-digit inflation in most developed economies have also contributed to the sense that ‘everything has changed’.
But for Walter Scott and the work that we do for our clients across the world, we also have a strong conviction that ‘nothing has changed’. This doesn’t refer to our portfolios, which despite our long-term outlook and low turnover, do evolve to take account of an ever-changing economic outlook. It is our purpose and our core investment process that is constant – we are here to add long-term value for our clients by taking account of all relevant investment factors in a changing world, however they are labelled.