Investing

Supporting the aims of the World Benchmark Alliance

Macquarie Asset Management has participated in engagements related to the World Benchmark Alliance’s Digital Inclusion Benchmark, Food and Agriculture Benchmark, and Corporate Human Rights Benchmark.

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Sector Investing
Sub-sector Equities & Multi-Asset
Locations Global

Opportunity

The private sector plays a crucial role in advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), helping facilitate the transition to a more sustainable future.

The World Benchmark Alliance (WBA) was established in 2018 with the understanding that while many companies are making efforts towards sustainability, there is a need for a more coordinated, transparent, and accountable approach to ensure that the private sector contributes effectively to the SDGs.

To achieve this, the WBA has developed a series of benchmarks by assessing 2,000 of the world’s most influential companies, ranking and measuring them on their contributions to the SDGs.

Approach

Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) joined the WBA in 2021 and leverages their benchmarks to actively engage with companies on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.

MAM also utilises WBA benchmark data as a valuable input for its proprietary SDG database, a scoring system which holds more than 150 data points for over 10,000 companies, aimed at identifying companies’ alignment to the 17 SDGs. The range of WBA benchmarks available provides MAM’s investment teams with the ability to assess companies’ alignment to the SDGs, covering environmental risks such as impact on biodiversity and social issues such as supply chain labour risks.

Outcome

The WBA’s collective engagements have met with 97 companies, with MAM actively participating in three of these initiatives.1

Since joining the WBA, MAM has participated in engagements related to the WBA’s Digital Inclusion Benchmark, Food and Agriculture Benchmark and Corporate Human Rights Benchmark.

Select sustainability-aligned strategies that utilise our SDG database only include investee companies that have achieved a minimum score within our database. We see engaging with investee companies that have received a low benchmark score as an opportunity to increase their score, potentially allowing for inclusion in the investable universe.

97

companies collectively engaged with by the WBA, with MAM actively participating in three of these initiatives1

$A1.6b

invested in MAM public markets portfolios managed in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals2

661

recorded ESG company engagements by MAM public markets3

As an ally of the WBA, MAM is committed to the WBA's mission, vision, and values, and believes in the power of its benchmarks and cross-sector partnerships to drive systematic progress on the UN SDGs and ultimately enhance shareholder value.” 

Barry Gladstein
Head of Sustainable Investing, Equities & Multi-Asset
Macquarie Asset Management

  1. As at 31 March 2024.
  2. All portfolios that have stated alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a portfolio objective and are actively monitored by MAM’s public markets’ Investment Risk team to ensure compliance with their objectives.
  3. Across our public markets businesses, with 493 different companies in the 12 months to 31 March 2024.

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