Border to Coast Pensions Partnership has highlighted its role as an active steward of Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) assets in its Responsible Investment and Stewardship Report, revealing that it voted on over 12,000 resolutions.

According to the report, Border to Coast voted on 12,206 resolutions at investee companies during the past year, across 930 meetings, with 1,672 engagements held with companies.

Key votes included a climate and transition plan proposed by mining firm BHP Group on the basis it was not ambitious enough in its aims, and supporting a shareholder resolution requiring Costco Wholesale to commit to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

In terms of votes against, the biggest category was board members, representing 33 per cent of votes against, followed by remuneration at 21 per cent.

Over the past year, the partnership also launched its second Private Markets programme, receiving £4bn of commitments from partner funds, which included a £1.35bn climate opportunities proposition, targeting investments that will have a material positive impact on climate change.

In addition to this, Border to Coast has confirmed plans to publish its net zero roadmap later in 2022, to set out the steps it will take to deliver on its commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions across its investments by 2050 or sooner, if possible.

This marks the third year that Border to Coast has reported in line with the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), outlining its approach to managing climate-related risks and opportunities within the four thematic areas of governance, strategy, risk management and metrics and targets.

Border to Coast CEO, Rachel Elwell, commented: “Working with our partner funds as one of the largest LGPS pools in the UK, we continue to make significant progress in influencing and driving standards through developing our approach to responsible investment.

“Collaboration is one of our core values, and we use the strength offered by our collective scale to influence the companies we invest in and to support industry-initiatives.

"We continue to believe in the power of engagement, and these reports set out the impact we are having both within the investment industry and across the global companies in which we invest.”

Adding to this, Border to Coast head of responsible investment, Jane Firth, said: “During the year we have continued to enhance our approach to responsible investment, publishing our first standalone Climate Change Policy, strengthening our voting positions around our engagement themes and further developing our reporting.

"Working with our partner funds we will continue to evolve our approach to reflect new risks, regulation and emerging opportunities.”

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