Liontrust Sustainable Investment Annual Review 2022 - Flipbook - Page 35
2022 Initiative
Description
We said we would:
In 2022:
Ensuring worker
wellbeing
How companies
manage and look after
their workforce through
direct operations and
workers further down
their supply chains can
directly affect corporate
reputation and overall
business performance.
We will engage to
encourage companies
to offer decent work and
pay living wages and
to ensure they mitigate
risks, protect workers’
rights and maximise the
opportunities to support
employees. We will also
encourage companies
to use their influence
to drive forward best
practice further down
their supply chains.
Engagement will cover
companies’ response
to and management of
the pandemic, including
workforce adaptation,
Covid-19 safety,
redundancies and supply
chain impacts.
• Request investee
companies complete
the WDI 2022 Survey.
Increase the proportion
of investee companies
participating in the
2022 survey.
As part of Liontrust’s
• Request investee
commitment as a
companies complete
signatory to the WDI, the
the WDI 2023 Survey.
Sustainable Investment
Increase the proportion
team contacted 83
of investee companies
holdings in the funds to
participating.
request they respond to
• For companies that
the WDI’s 2021 survey.
responded in 2022,
Of these, 34 have now
encourage further
completed the 2022
disclosure in areas
Survey (vs. last year 32
where it was lacking.
in 2021), and we saw
some improvement in
• Use 2022 WDI
disclosure.
data to engage with
investee companies
where there are
specific opportunities,
such as where
are there gaps in
reporting relative to
peers, performance
weaknesses or areas
of concern.
• For companies that
responded in 2021,
encourage further
disclosure in areas
where it was lacking.
• Use 2021 WDI
data to engage with
investee companies
where there are
specific opportunities,
such as where
are there gaps in
reporting relative to
peers, performance
weaknesses or areas
of concern.
In 2023, we will:
• Discuss how
companies are helping
workers though the
current cost of living
crisis.
Case study: The Workforce Disclosure Initiative (WDI)
The Workforce Disclosure
Initiative was set up by
ShareAction, funded by
the UK’s Department for International Development. Over 100
investors and $12 trillion in AUM are asking companies to provide
more information on labour practices to identify badly managed
workforces that are vulnerable to shocks.
We believe that how companies manage human capital in their
direct operations, as well as workers further down their supply
chains, can affect long-term success. Our team will engage to
encourage companies to offer decent work and ensure they protect
workers’ rights and maximise opportunities to support employees.
We will also encourage companies to use their influence to drive
forward best practice further down their supply chains.
Overall, 34 investee companies participated in the 2022 survey,
equating to 16% (out of 218 entities held as at the end of
December 2022), and 33 of these received a special mention for
their transparent disclosure in 2022.
Liontrust Sustainable Investment: Annual Review 2022 - 35