Brunel Pension Partnership, Bristol, England, improved the carbon efficiency of its portfolio vs. its benchmark to 22% in 2020 from 15.4% a year earlier, as part of efforts to reduce carbon emissions by half by 2030.
The pension pool is aiming to eliminate carbon emissions across all investments by 2050, its second annual responsible investment and stewardship outcomes report said Thursday.
The report also said Brunel reduced the carbon intensity of its active listed equity portfolio by at least 7% vs. in 2019. Active listed equity constitutes 46% of its current holdings. Brunel also invests 32% in passive listed equities, 8% in infrastructure, 5% in private equity, 3% in real estate and 6% in other asset classes.
The pool of U.K. local authority funds, which have £30 billion ($41.4 billion) in combined assets, also said it boosted efforts to improve gender representation on the boards of listed companies in its portfolio. The proportion of women on the boards of the companies held in its active portfolios increased to 35% in 2020, up from 33% a year earlier.
During 2020, Brunel also increased its engagement efforts with portfolio companies, raising 3,101 issues with 881 corporations. That compared with 867 companies and 2,537 issues a year earlier.
"This second edition shows our progress across several key themes and gives strong evidence of the time and energy we commit to following through on our core values," Laura Chappell, CEO at Brunel, said in a news release accompanying the report. "It also enables us to think about where we could be more effective and how we need to develop our thinking and our approach," she said.
