Perspectives

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Calvert Women’s Principles (CWP), established as a partnership between Calvert Research and Management (“Calvert”) and UN Women in 2004. They remain the first global code of corporate conduct focused exclusively on advancing, protecting, and investing in women.

Engagement is a critical part of responsible investing at Calvert. In this paper, we discuss how a data-driven engagement strategy rooted in financial materiality can overcome the challenges of engagement and is more likely to support long term value creation, risk management and real world impact.

Calvert believes companies that successfully manage financially material ESG risks and opportunities are better positioned for long-term outperformance. We believe investment strategies that focus on these companies are more likely to provide opportunities for long-term value creation as well as positive global ESG outcomes.

Responsible investing encompasses a broad range of approaches, but there are a common set of requirements for investors who seek to deliver value both to clients and to society more broadly.

In the third paper of our gender diversity series, we discuss one of the top remaining global gender issues: the gap in the corporate “talent pipeline” – where gender and ethnic representation at the board and employee levels is much higher than at the executive and senior management levels.

The energy transition will be complex, but in our view it’s this complexity that creates a rich opportunity set for investors intent on making a positive global impact, in addition to pursuing solid financial returns.