We're committed to responsible investing. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues are considered by our in-house investment management team when making decisions about investments.
More generally, through analysing the ESG profile of companies we invest in, we are able to enhance the expected performance of our portfolios by avoiding those companies with high ESG-related risks, and investing more in companies with limited amounts of ESG risk.
Kiwi Wealth is committed to responsible investment and has a long-standing responsible investment policy.
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Download our responsible investment policy (PDF 420KB) |
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Download our responsible investment policy (PDF 420KB) |
The objective of the responsible investment policy is to set out how the Kiwi Wealth Group will incorporate responsible investing principles and practices into its investment decisions. This includes decisions to invest in securities and decisions to appoint investment managers. They fall into one of the following three categories:
Companies which are involved in any of the following product areas will be excluded for both direct and indirect investment:
Tobacco – the tobacco industry’s products are both highly addictive and highly detrimental to health. In addition, their products are aggressively marketed in emerging economies, amounting to widespread human victimisation. We exclude companies where tobacco is the primary industry.
Controversial and nuclear weapons – controversial and nuclear weapons are characterised by being particularly likely to cause civilian casualties either due to their intended usage or due to unintended casualties. This category covers weapons such as cluster bombs, landmines, depleted uranium weapons, chemical and biological weapons, nuclear weapons. We exclude any company identified as being involved in this category.
Whaling and whale meat processing – the whaling industry has decimated many whale populations. The New Zealand government is strongly committed to anti-whaling efforts and whaling remains a deeply unpopular industry in New Zealand. We exclude any company identified as being involved in this category.
Companies which fall into this category exhibit highly unethical behaviour, particularly in the context of:
These companies will be excluded from directly held investments only, including where such investments may be made by another investment manager under an IMA.
The following industries are considered areas of sensitivity, due to their high likelihood of victimising people and/or the environment:
Investments may be made in these sensitive areas in special cases where the general ethical concerns for the industry in question have been sufficiently mitigated by the company.
We also use the New Zealand Superannuation Fund exclusions list to help us to identify companies involved in the areas of tobacco and controversial weapons, and to identify additional ESG exclusions.
