The New Zealand Superannuation Fund continues to perform well as a responsible investor, ranking among the top tier globally, the manager of the Fund, the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation, said today.

The Guardians released a 2015 United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) report giving the Fund an A+ rating for its overall approach to responsible investment.

Chief Executive Officer Adrian Orr said: “We believe that environmental, social and governance factors are material to long-term investment returns. Long-term investors such as the Fund have a strong financial incentive to manage environmental, social and governance risks, as well as to look for positive investment opportunities.”

“The report is welcome recognition for the effort we have devoted in recent years to team training and integrating responsible investment considerations into individual roles and accountabilities.”

The UNPRI is the internationally accepted benchmark for how institutional investors should manage environmental, social and governance issues. The 2015 report follows a redesign of the UNPRI’s assessment and reporting methodology, and is therefore the first public UNPRI report on the Fund’s responsible investment performance since 2011. Under the previous UNPRI reporting methodology, the Fund also did well, rating in the top quartile of a group of 198 asset owners across all six UNPRI principles (2011).

The UNPRI, which has grown rapidly in recent years, now includes more than 1,400 signatories around the world. Collectively, UNPRI signatories manage US$59 trillion – just over half of the world’s institutional assets.

The full report, and a complementary Transparency Report, are available here.

Further information on the UNPRI’s reporting methodology is available within the NZ Super Fund’s report and at www.unpri.org.