IMP Matrix Rating: C2
What: The Stewart Investors Global Emerging Markets Sustainability Fund is a public equities fund that invests in the shares of high quality companies that are well positioned to benefit from and contribute to the sustainable development of the countries in which they operate. Analyzing environmental, social and governance information helps the fund understand more about the quality of companies. It’s not about being ‘green’, ‘clean tech’ or ‘ethical’ investors: the emphasis is on sustainable development, especially in emerging markets.
Who: The stakeholders of the public companies the fund invests into.
How Much Impact: Stewart provides a very unique impact map for its public equities portfolio, highlighting for each company the SDG contribution, and very transparently outlining what is impact positive and what is not for each company. It also has gone as far as mapping their individual portfolio companies’ contribution to Project Drawdown on climate change mitigation. However, given the complexity of each stock and the fund’s recognition of the importance of net impact and the difficulties with attribution, they do not publish an aggregate impact report with metrics - instead offering case studies and in-depth commentary in their quarterly newsletters.
Our Contribution: As per all our public equities investments, our investment additionality is minimal, and therefore rely on Stewart’s strong on-the-ground engagement with companies - especially on the governance challenges faced by emerging markets companies - to drive the impact contribution of this investment.
Impact Risk: The fund is very open about the fact that any company selected on positive impact and ESG criteria will have to be assessed with its net impact risks. For example, the fund holds Nestlé, and believe that the company is moving in the right direction in terms of access to nutrition, supply chains, and packaging, but readily acknowledge risks from bottled water, plastic packaging, and responsible sourcing.
Sample Investment: Dabur, an Indian consumer goods company.