Evolutionary Awards – Ninety One: Sustainable investing

Category: Evolution in investments

Describe your evolution:

Since our beginnings in 1991, Sustainability has been part of what we do and who we are. But Ninety One’s Sustainability journey has steadily evolved over time.

Early Beginnings: integration of ESG factors and setting up frameworks. Ninety One began incorporating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into its investment analysis and decision-making processes, and incorporating international ESG frameworks as early as 2008.

Sustainable Funds: In 2016, we stated managing one of the first and biggest blended finance funds – the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund – one of the first privately led developmental impact funds on the continent. In 2018, we two more sustainable strategies – Global Environment and UK Sustainable Equity.

Scaling our Sustainability footprint: by 2020, we had embedded ESG into our risk function and set up robust governance structures to hold ourselves to account including a Sustainability Committee and Sustainable Investing Advisory Forum comprised of senior leaders in the business. In 2021, we build out our Sustainability team and appointed a Chief Sustainability Office to manage the function globally. We also ramped up our capacity building in investment teams on key issues such as climate change via bespoke climate training by Imperial College London.

Recent developments: Net-zero commitment: Ninety One has committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its investment portfolio by 2050. We aim to achieve this through active allocation to climate solutions and transitioning companies, while actively engaging portfolio companies on their own transition plan. We have also expanded our sustainable equity strategies, focusing on identifying and investing in companies that are driving positive change in both developed and emerging markets. More recently we launched the Emerging Market Transition Debt fund which identifies key enabling companies and projects that will be critical to the low carbon transition in EM countries.

Frameworks and thought leadership: we actively develop tools and frameworks to help integrate sustainability, climate and transition into our investment thinking. Such tools include:

1) Capitals Framework: Ninety One developed a “Capitals Framework” to evaluate companies based on their impact on natural, social, and human capital, providing a comprehensive approach to assessing sustainability;

2) Transition Categorisation framework – developed alongside other asset owners and managers to develop a common language around transition;

3) Ninety One’s carbon avoided and reduce methodology, in collaboration with CDP – we use this methodology to report the impact of our climate and transition funds. We also published a number of papers and investment thought leadership pieces on the impact and opportunity for sustainable investing which can be found on our website.

Ninety One has made significant strides in integrating sustainability into its investment approach, as well as working with clients, peers and companies to further embed sustainability into our industry.

Describe the impact your evolution has had in response to its identified challenges and targeted outcomes.

Enhanced risk management: The incorporation of ESG factors into investment analysis has helped to identify potential risks associated with environmental and social factors, allowing for more informed decision-making.

Enhanced reputation: Our commitment to sustainability has strengthened its reputation as a responsible investor, attracting socially conscious clients and investors.
Contributing to drive positive change: Through active engagement with companies, Ninety One has played a role in promoting sustainable practices and driving positive change within industries.

Aligned with global trends: our evolution aligns with the growing global focus on sustainability and climate change, positioning us well for future opportunities.

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