Responsible investment

“We have a commitment to place environmental, social and governance factors at the heart of everything we do. ESG has been a key part of our investment thinking for many years as has our clients’ interest and awareness of the importance of sustainable investing.”

Alex Hoctor-Duncan, Chief Executive Officer

Our approach

We are always evolving our policies to ensure we work to improve investor outcomes. We believe companies that operate responsibly are better positioned to offer investors sustainable, positive returns. As long-term active managers, we are aware that an environmental, social and governance (collectively ESG) event or condition, if it occurs, can cause an actual or a potential material negative impact on the sustainability of a business (sustainability risks) and therefore its future revenue-generating ability.

We evaluate and integrate sustainability risks into our investment decision making process and risk monitoring to the extent that they represent potential or actual material risks and/or opportunities to maximising long-term risk-adjusted returns consistent with our clients’ objectives.

Our investment decision making process drives investment performance, which in turn is used to determine variable remuneration outcomes. We believe that the direct link between variable remuneration outcomes and ESG factors (including sustainability risk) can be strengthened and enhanced and will look to consider this over the course of the next year.

We have a responsibility as an active asset manager to continuously engage with investees and to enact change through stewardship.

See our Voting and Engagement

We do not currently consider the principal adverse impacts of our investment decisions on sustainability factors (environmental, social and employee matters, respect for human rights, anti-corruption and anti-bribery matters) on the basis that, while sustainability risks are incorporated into our investment decision making processes, the relevant information required in a principle adverse impact statement remains in draft form and has not yet come into effect We remain mindful of future developments in regulatory clarity in this regard.

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ESG in action

We apply the same standards to our own business that we would like to see in the companies we analyse.

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Principles and values

Our principles and values define the behaviours we consider to be critical for our success. We measure employee performance against the business’s values.

Carbon neutral

We have been certified carbon neutral by Natural Capital Partners. We have offset our carbon emissions, including all business travel and commuting.

Staff wellbeing

We have enhanced staff maternity pay and annual leave entitlement. Employees receive medical insurance, including wellbeing and stress management support.

Voluntary gender pay-gap reporting

We voluntarily publish our gender pay gap. Whilst comparable to industry peers, we continue to take action to move these results in a positive direction.

Community

Our employee-led charity committee coordinates activities raising funds for charities, earning matched funding from the business.

Diversity and inclusion

We continuously work on ways to improve diversity and inclusions at a firm and industry level.

Industry participation

ESG policies and documents

These policies formally outline the integration of Environmental, Social & Governance factors at River and Mercantile Group and its impact to client outcomes. They show our position on ESG to stakeholders, guide fund managers and investment teams on how to handle ESG issues and demonstrate our overall responsible investment approach.

Policies

Documents

Training & Support

In this training workshop for investee companies we provide background and comprehension necessary to enable companies to commence reporting Greenhouse Protocol Scope 1 and 2 emmissions.

Please note that this video is hosted by BrightTALK and requires individual user registration to view.