Aviva Investors has launched two new environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds – Investors Social Transition Global Equity and Investors Natural Capital Transition Global Equity – amid a spate of fund sustainable portfolio launches.
The actively managed funds, which opened today, aim to meet the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by improving social and environmental standards, as well as delivering long-term returns to investors. The two ESG funds are part of Aviva’s pre-existing Investors Sustainable Transition range.
The Social Transition fund, managed by Richard Saldanha and Matt Kirby will address SDGs five, eight and 10, which tackle gender equality, sustainable growth while ensuring a decent work environment and country and labour inequality.
It has a human rights focus and will invest in companies that promote decent working conditions and access to education and healthcare.
Aviva will use the World Benchmarking Alliance’s (WBA) social transformation framework, which ranks companies based on their contributions to improving human rights, to make investment decisions.
The firm also announced that 5 basis points of the fund’s management fee will also be donated to social impact projects.
The Natural Capital Transition fund takes a more environmental investment approach and is aligned with SDGs 12, 13, 14 and 15, which cover responsible consumption and production, climate action and conservation efforts both on land and in the sea. Managers Julie Zhuang and Jonathan Toub will invest in sustainable assets that tackle climate change.
Mark Versey, chief executive officer at Aviva, said: “As well as growing their wealth, people want to know that their money is making a positive contribution to climate change, a fairer society and protection of the natural environment. The two objectives are equally important and aligned – we call this investing with purpose.”
Aviva’s announcement follows the release of two other ESG ranges last week. Vanguard’s Global Sustainability Equity fund and Invesco’s Climate Paris aligned range both aim to make environmentally impactful investments and reflect the growing popularity of sustainable assets.
Indeed, recent data from Calastone revealed record inflows of £1.5bn for ESG funds in October, highlighting the increasing appeal of sustainable investments.