The University of Waterloo is committing to reducing the carbon footprint of its pension and endowment investment portfolios by 50 per cent by 2030, with the goal of achieving full carbon neutrality by 2040. “With this new commitment, the university is . . . aligning its investment practices with its teaching, research and operations on climate change, […]
A record return over the first full year of the pandemic has put the manager of Canada’s largest retirement fund years ahead of schedule to meet a long-term goal of having half a trillion dollars in assets by 2028. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board reported that its funds earned 20.4 per cent net of […]
A defined benefit pension plan leader rarely gets to work with a “blank canvas,” but Chuck Bruce has taken that unique opportunity and drawn a new way forward for more than 56,000 DB plan members in Newfoundland and Labrador. In late 2014, the province and its five largest unions established Provident10 to administer and oversee […]
Employees at two Canadian pension plans are being recognized for their responsible investment achievements. The British High Commission and the Canada Climate Law Initiative named Barbara Zvan, inaugural president and chief executive officer of the University Pension Plan, and Kim Thomassin, executive vice-president and head of investments in Quebec and stewardship investing at the Caisse […]
The majority (86 per cent) of Imperial Oil Ltd. investors voted to defeat a shareholder resolution that the organization adopt a target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. However, the vote held during the Calgary-based company’s virtual annual meeting exposes a rift between its parent U.S. giant Exxon Mobil Corp. — which owns 69.6 […]
The University of Toronto Asset Management Corp. ended 2020 with pension and endowment returns of 11.7 per cent and 11.6 per cent, respectively. In a press release, the UTAM said while the pension return matched that of its benchmark reference portfolio, endowments underperformed by 0.2 per cent. However, it noted long-term performance of the portfolios […]
The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. is partnering with the University of Victoria-led Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions to co-develop decision-making tools and frameworks for integrating climate change risk evaluation and climate mitigation opportunities into investment portfolios. “Acting in the best financial interests of our clients requires us to think long-term about the opportunities and […]
We are now in Month 14 of the coronavirus pandemic. For institutional investors like pension plans, this pandemic and its consequences highlight the reality of systemic risk: events like the ongoing pandemic can and do happen and pension plans need to get ready. Because another systemic risk is at our doorstep: climate change. 2020 was one […]
It isn’t just asset managers who are increasingly embracing the integration of environmental, social and governance factors into investment decision-making. An important contributor to “record inflows” into sustainable investing strategies over the past 12 to 18 months is demand from plan members, as well as individual retail investors, says Eric Monteiro, senior vice-president, group retirement […]
Jennifer Coulson has been engaged in responsible investing and environmental, social and governance factors for two decades and remembers a time when it was difficult to get access to chief executive officers to discuss her concerns. Not anymore. Today, senior leaders have a much better understanding of the importance of ESG factors and actively seek […]