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Matt Whineray, Chief Executive Officer

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Our commitment to responsible investment and our early adoption of a climate change investment strategy has served us well, and over the last 20 years we’ve developed a strong track record as a responsible investor.

We've been included in the UN Principles for Responsible Investment Leaders Group, named one of the world's most responsible asset allocators and won a host of awards.

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• Included in the UN Principles for Responsible Investment Leaders Group
• Named one of the world's most responsible asset allocators
• Won awards for our approach to responsible investment

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We have delivered strong financial returns for New Zealand taxpayers, including being named the top performing sovereign wealth fund globally.

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Named the top performing sovereign wealth fund globally

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We’ve also thought hard about where we need to take our approach to responsible investment over the next decade, in order to maintain a leadership position and to retain the confidence of our stakeholders.

We do this as part of ensuring — and this is obviously critical — that we meet our commercial mandate.

Globally, investment practice is evolving from a responsible investment model which is focused primarily on managing environmental, social and governance or ESG risk, towards a sustainable finance focus.

This is about ensuring the financial system serves the long-term wellbeing of society, the environment and the real economy.

It's a real mindset shift for professional investors: from considering the impact of these ESG risks on the portfolio of assets we manage to considering the impact of our portfolio and the assets in it on the world and society.

Fundamentally, these changes are being driven by changing consumer and stakeholder expectations.

They're also driven by an understanding amongst investors that companies that do a good job of managing ESG risks perform better over the long term.

And at the same time, the data and tools available to measure and monitor ESG performance are developing rapidly.

Our sustainable finance strategy, designed to see us through the next 10 years, is built around 3 core concepts from the roadmap developed by Toitū Tahua, New Zealand’s Centre for Sustainable Finance:

• Changing mindsets — through our governance, leadership and communication
• Transforming finance — by improving ESG performance over the long term
• Financing transformation — investing for impact

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• Changing mindsets — through our governance, leadership and communication
• Transforming finance — by improving ESG performance over the long term
• Financing transformation — investing for impact

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Within this framework, we’re progressing a range of initiatives to shift the NZ Super Fund to a sustainable finance approach.

These include committing to having a net zero NZ Super Fund by 2050, scaling up our impact investments in an effort to allocate capital to sustainability solutions with the required commercial returns, and investing in fewer companies with better ESG performance across the global equity portfolio.

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• Committing to have a net zero Fund by 2050
• Scaling up our impact investment
• Investing in fewer companies wth better ESG performance

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Perhaps most importantly, we’ve changed our organisational purpose to embed sustainability at its core: Sustainable investment delivering strong returns for all New Zealanders.

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Our purpose - Sustainable investment delivering strong returns for all New Zealanders

Logo of NZ Super Fund, Te Kaitiaki Tahua Penihana Kaumātua o Aotearoa