Our 2024 Stewardship Code Report

Every year, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) gives organisations the opportunity to become signatories to its Stewardship Code. 

Now in our fifth year of formally reporting our stewardship activity, we do so at a time when stewardship and sustainability more generally are being challenged. Questions are being posed about what constitutes 'responsible investment', and asset owners' rights risk being eroded. But climate change is agnostic to politics, and the need remains for action at all levels, particularly by policymakers.

We encapsulated our beliefs in our revitalised Responsible Investment Mission Statement. This sets out our ‘ABC for a better future’ framework, capturing our three pillars: Achieving net zero, Being better stewards and Creating positive impact. These three pillars have guided our work with clients over the course of 2024.

The report contains case studies, explores our areas of focus and key highlights from the year. We also shine a spotlight on biodiversity. Key themes centre around: 

Collaboration and advocacy

Collaboration is key to ensuring stewardship practices focus on creating long-term sustainable value for asset owners and beneficiaries. We've been active in our engagement with asset owners, managers and industry partners. Our report details our involvement with the A4S Sustainability Principles Charter, Investment Consultants Sustainability Working Group (ICSWG) and the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC). We engaged with the Financial Reporting Council on their review of the UK Stewardship Code, contributing to their initial evidence gathering. We also recently published guidance for asset owners on what you need to know as a signatory for the upcoming 2026 Stewardship Code, sharing our key learnings from working through the reporting process. 

A proactive approach to engagement

Engagement is a critical part of stewardship that’s becoming more important as political and regulatory pressures impact the role of asset owners. The report outlines our approach and progress in this area, working to ensure asset manager practices are aligned to asset owners’ expectations. You’ll find details around how we use our RI Ratings framework and integrate this data into our research processes and manager engagement programme, Hymans Engage. Our focus in this area centres around improving manager capabilities and client outcomes, which can be explored through the various case studies.

Our focus on meaningful and continued progress

Efforts should focus on what’s meaningful. In the continually evolving area of climate, we actively support our clients in the development and implementation of strategies that address climate-related risks and opportunities. The report illustrates our activities but also report further on our progress against our commitments under the Net Zero Investment Consultants Initiative (NZICI).

Progress starts with understanding, more meaningful stakeholder discussions and prioritising action. To support our clients in navigating the changing RI space, we developed our RI Health Check. This simple tool enables asset owners to consider how they might integrate RI further into their processes and practices in line with their goals. You’ll find further details and examples of how we’ve supported clients through this work.

The impact section of the report explores our framework and rigorous approach to support clients affect positive impact on society or the environment. You’ll learn how we help clients better understand, actively consider and prioritise the right course of action in line with their impact investing beliefs, goals and ambitions. 

We hope you find the report helpful in illustrating our commitment and progress throughout the year.

Download our Stewardship Code report

If you have any questions on the report, or would like to discuss things further, please get in touch. Or visit the Responsible Investment area of our website for more information.