Greenbank, the ethical investment arm of Rathbones Group, has renewed its commitment to health, climate and nature with a series of industry-wide engagements.
The investment team said it will resume its work on the Investor Coalition on Food Policy and work with Finance for Biodiversity and Nature Action 100 on biodiversity initiatives.
For the projects, Greenbank said it will be responsible for shaping the overall direction and strategy, including continuing to chair the Investor Coalition on Food Policy.
Sophie Lawrence, stewardship and engagement lead at Greenbank (pictured), said: “We’ve led the Investor Coalition on Food Policy since inception, and this will continue to be one of our key active engagements in 2024. The Coalition will continue to advocate for measures which lead to greater business transparency and accountability around the health and sustainability of the food system and explore the emergent risks and opportunities for investors.
“From a worker health perspective, we aim to improve awareness and understanding of how worker health impacts social, corporate and investor outcomes, through our continued membership of ShareAction’s Long-term Investors in People’s Health initiative.”
Greenbank said it will also work to encourage companies to mitigate biodiversity-related risks and to reduce or reverse their negative impacts as part of its focus on ‘Nature.’
This includes encouraging companies to align with best practice frameworks from Nature Action 100, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures and the Science-based Targets Network.
The firm said the theme for its Investor Day in April will be “Water” which it believes will act as a “common link” between all of its priority engagement areas.
In addition, Greenbank has also pledged its commitment to climate.
Lawrence said: “Climate’ is once again a core focus. We will continue to encourage companies to develop a robust climate strategy, aligned to the criteria laid out in the Net Zero Investment Framework. We want companies to have strong climate governance in place and allocate sufficient capital to decarbonisation, as well as transitioning in a fair and inclusive way.”
