Asset owners

‘Asset owners’ have always been and will continue to be the driving force behind SRI. Indeed, without their interest, support and money, there would be no such thing as SRI.

The approach that each ‘owner’ takes to SRI and the strategies that they adopt are clearly influenced by the type of investor that they are and, in particular, by whether they are investing on their own account – or acting on behalf of (in trust for) beneficiaries.

Asset owners can be divided into:

Individuals

‘High-net-worth’ investors
Retail investors

Institutions

Pension funds (for private, public and third sector employees)
Insurance funds
Sovereign wealth funds
Churches, charities and foundations
Family offices (& multi-family offices)
Fund providers

Amongst institutional owners, there are widely differing levels of experience in SRI:

A select group of ‘agenda setters’ are responding creatively to the challenge that climate change and sustainable development present by exploring and defining new options for the exercise of ‘responsible ownership’ prototypes for themselves and for others to follow
A group of ‘active adopters’ have typically developed their own policy on sustainable investment, have signed the UN PRI and are now learning how to implement it
An ‘aware’ cohort who are at the early stage of investigating what SRI means and what implications it has for them
A group of antis / non-actors who are not engaging in SRI in any way

Finally, asset owners can be divided into those that:

manage their own assets
outsource the management of assets to specialist investment managers

Bookmarks: Renewed focus on asset owners | Give and gain | Objectives | Tactics, tone, targets, tracking | Complementarity, costs & conferences

Renewed focus on asset owners

Since launch, SRI-CONNECT has been pitched as a practical research and communications tool that works best at the asset manager <=> research provider <=> listed company end of the investment value chain.

The site’s use for the asset owner <=> investment consultant end of the investment value chain has been downplayed. Asset owners and investment consultants have been welcome to use the site and many do. (See: List of asset owner members | List of investment consultant members). However, there has been little active attempt to present the site’s capabilities to them.

Recently, however, we have observed that SRI-CONNECT does fulfil many of the SRI & corporate governance-related needs of asset owners and investment consultants and it does this in a way that is likely to be attractive to them.

We believe that SRI-CONNECT is very different from other services and suppliers to asset owners in the market. Indeed, the site is almost perfectly complementary to (and not competitive with) other services.

We, therefore, plan to extend SRI-CONNECT’s marketing outreach to asset owners and investment consultants.

Give: What SRI-CONNECT gives to asset owners

By putting SRI-CONNECT at the disposal of asset owners we aim to:

Empower more asset owners to engage more deeply with SRI and corporate governance so that they are able to …
… demand (from their asset managers) a high- (and improving) quality of SRI and corporate governance management and …
… improve the efficiency of their execution thereby…
… magnifying the impact that they (individually and collectively) have in the marketplace to the…
… ultimate advantage of their beneficiaries.

For more detail, see: How (& why) asset owners use SRI-CONNECT

Gain: What we hope to gain

SRI-CONNECT aims to attract asset owners and investment consultants to register here and use the site for the following reasons:

The presence and participation of owners and consultants on SRI-CONNECT will motivate others (through the investment value chain) to engage intelligently with the site
It will also ensure that the research and products developed by the downstream value chain respond to the real (rather than perceived) needs and expectations of asset owners

Importantly, we do not envisage making money out of asset owners or investment consultants (either via subscription or via consultancy services).

Objectives

In five years time, there will be a vibrant, interconnected network that links asset owners to each other and to the providers of services to them. This network will sustain ongoing dialogue and development of best practice through seamless transfer between set-pieces (reports & presentations), offline activity (live events and meetings) and online discussion.

SRI-CONNECT aims to be the online component of this network and to work collaboratively with those working offline and via publications.

To bring this about, SRI-CONNECT aims to support and energise the online activity of asset owners and investment consultants and to encourage them to consider ‘online’ a happy ‘go to’ place when they want to engage their peers or the wider global SRI / CG community.

Tactics

SRI-CONNECT’s tactics for engaging asset owners and investment consultants are simple:

Tactic 1: Transparency

We have articulated (arguably for the first time) what SRI-CONNECT delivers to asset owners and investment consultants specifically:

Tactic 2: Leverage leadership

We will champion the actions of individuals at asset owners and investment consultants and build their profile within the wider industry. We will highlight good and innovative practice by asset owners wherever we find it – regardless of the geography, type or size of the owner.

Tactic 3: Grow the flow

We will create and curate a flow of engaging research and blogposts that relate to the practical needs and experiences of asset owners and investment consultants. In the immediate future, these will appear as:

AO Confidential: A series of blogposts on the challenges, chances and complexities facing asset owners in their engagement with SRI & corporate governance
Who you gonna call: A guide to investment consultants’ abilities to support SRI & corporate governance implementation by asset owners
‘Meet’ interviews: A regular spot for asset owners and investment consultants in SRI-CONNECT's continuing series of interviews of participants in the SRI & CG value chain

Tactic 4: Bulldozing barriers

We will keep the barriers to engagement as low as we possibly can

Joining: Registration with SRI-C is free | Takes 2 minutes | Register here | No commitment required
Engaging: See here: QuickStart tips for asset owners
Support: If you are an asset owner or investment consultant and there’s something you want to achieve in SRI or Corporate Governance, just contact Mike Tyrrell (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | +44 20 7119 6640) and we will tailor an SRI-CONNECT-made solution for you.

Tone and content

We have observed how the SRI activity of engagement of asset owners falls into two categories:

‘Core’ AO activities

... which involves adding an SRI dimension to the typical practices of asset owners
Such activities include: asset allocation, manager selection, manager monitoring, beneficiary / member communications etc.

‘Innovative’ AO activities

… where SRI considerations induce an asset owner to get involved in activities that would not normally feature within an asset owner’s ‘typical’ practice.
Such activities include: public policy engagement, direct corporate engagement on sustainability issues, carbon footprinting, ‘ESG risk analysis’ etc.

SRI-CONNECT will remain exclusively focussed on the former (‘core’) activities. There are lots of organisations, projects and individuals available to help with ‘innovative’ activities and we have no desire to crowd the space.

Targets

Today: There are currently 111 asset owners registered with SRI-CONNECT.
Tomorrow: For the immediate future, we have identified a list of 32 priority individuals that we would particularly like to join SRI-CONNECT (for their benefit and ours). (These people are currently visible (and vocal) in other SRI & CG fora but have not yet taken advantage of SRI-CONNECT’s ability to leverage and spread their messages online).
To the future: Ultimately we want the site to be accessible to (and joined by) all asset owners (trustees and executives) with an interest in sustainable and responsible investment.

Tracking

We will measure progress against our objectives by:

The number of asset owners registered with SRI-CONNECT

Asset owners on SRI-CONNECT (111)

The level of their engagement with the site

See: User cluster: Asset owners

… and we also use an engagement metric that’s a bit complicated to explain – but that we could make transparent if anyone is interested?!

Complementarity, costs & conferences – some notes

Complementarity – a note

We believe that SRI-CONNECT is entirely complementary to (and not competitive with) other services supplied to asset owners because:

It is focussed on investment research and not on policy or process development. Also, it does not report news.
It is an online network … and does not organise ‘live’ events
It has global reach … but not local presence
It is a platform to showcase the activity of asset owners and investment consultants. We do not aim to advise asset owners ourselves.

(We think that independent SRI consultants have an important role to play in helping asset owners develop their engagement with SRI & CG and are keen to support the growth and development of such services).

Costs – a note to collaborators and consultants

SRI-CONNECT can fund some small projects to nudge forward the visibility of asset owners, investment consultants and their respective needs around SRI.

However, because we do not expect to make any money from this group, we will prefer to lend the reach and communications capabilities of our network to those that can leverage them to build their own business in this area

(These people are likely to be investment consultants, SRI consultants, conference organisers, etc.)

Conferences - notes on collaboration

As an industry, we must exploit better the synergies between online and live activity (typically conferences).

SRI-CONNECT is well-positioned to support live activity (e.g. conferences and workshops) by:

building up investor interest in advance of the conference
reporting on the highlights of the event and then
sustaining the interest and debate (through online fora)
… until the next live event.

We have no interest in organising live events ourselves. So, we can work with all conference providers without conflict. We are confident that, in this way, SRI-CONNECT can be used to grow and enhance the quality of conferences rather than to cannibalise them.

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