IFM Investors releases Annual Sustainability Report for 2023/24

IFM Investors has today released its Annual Sustainability Report, highlighting its key sustainability achievements that impact its clients, owners and wider society – and key areas of focus for the year ahead.

Over the last year, IFM has overhauled its reporting processes looking for continuous improvement in the way the company provides useful decision-making information to clients and stakeholders and responds to regulatory demands.

For the first time, the Annual Sustainability Report combines three reports - IFM’s UK Stewardship Code submission, Climate Change Report and Sustainable Business Report - into a single document, providing an integrated view of IFM’s approach, activities and outcomes across sustainability considerations.

The new report focuses on being timely to help provide hot-off-the-press information to IFM’s clients who can then rely on it for their own reporting. It is also efficient in terms of resource allocation so that instead of producing a multitude of reports, sustainability specialists’ time is freed up to work on investment and stewardship activities, bringing about positive outcomes for clients and the real economy.

The report highlights active stewardship, advocacy and stakeholder engagement by IFM in key areas of systemic environmental and social risks around the globe. Key initiatives include:

• Publishing two landmark energy transition blueprints, with recommendations to the Australian and UK Governments on ways they can unlock investment opportunities for pension capital to fund the energy transition.

• Leading the UK Government’s Taskforce on Social Factors, which helps pension schemes address social factors in their investment decisions.

• Progress towards creating sustainable aviation fuel production facilities in Australia, by entering into a memorandum of understanding with Ampol and GrainCorp.

• Our work with some of Australia’s leading industry super funds to deploy capital into the Australian housing sector to boost supply, generate long-term risk adjusted returns to members and help bolster Australia’s social and affordable housing sector.

• Operationalising charters IFM has signed with the International Trade Union Confederation to respect labour rights. These charters were fully operationalised in FY24, and are working to address priority areas of focus, including workers’ rights, protecting human rights, safety and industry transitions such as automation.

IFM has continued to work closely with companies across its infrastructure equity portfolio to address climate change. On a net asset value basis, 94 per cent of IFM’s infrastructure equity portfolio has both interim and net zero targets.

In 2023, IFM’s Infrastructure Equity portfolio financed Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction was 1.03mtCO2e. This represents a 52% progress reduction in GHG emissions in relation to IFM’s 2030 target (1.97mtCO2e based on the 2019 baseline), which is approximately 38% ahead of the forecast for FY23 (0.75mtCO2e) from when the baseline and pathway were established.

Earlier this year, IFM set out Sustainable Investing Guidelines which focus on seven themes encompassing environmental and social issues. The development of principles to underpin the themes serves as a framework to guide investment decisions that balance returns and risks. The principles cover areas like efficient use of resources, protecting and promoting labour rights, community engagement and biodiversity protection.

Central to IFM’s sustainable investment approach is a focus on maximising long-term returns for clients and the millions of everyday people they represent, as well as positioning investments for stronger value creation.

IFM’s Annual Sustainability Report can be viewed here.

Quote attributable to IFM Investors Chief Executive, David Neal:
“Our approach to sustainability underpins our focus on maximising long-term risk adjusted returns, and recognises that delivering benefits for the economy, environment and society is a crucial part of value creation.”

“The energy transition, housing and wealth inequality are some of the defining challenges the world is facing. IFM is building resilient portfolios to invest, protect and grow the retirement savings of working people and managing systemic risks.”

Quote attributable to IFM Investors Global Head of Sustainable Investment, Maria Nazarova-Doyle:
“We have a wealth of initiatives underway at IFM and we are particularly focused on further enhancing the application of sustainability considerations across our business and our portfolios as we continue to grow our assets under management and our global client base.”

“The one-stop shop approach for our sustainability reporting provides the relevant and timely information clients need – and the streamlined approach allows subject matter experts to use the time they save to focus on investment and stewardship activities.”

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About IFM Investors
IFM Investors was established more than 25 years ago with the aim to invest, protect and grow the long-term retirement savings of working people. Owned by a group of Australian pension funds, the organisation has approximately A$218 billion under management as at 30 June 2024. Because IFM is owned by industry pension funds, we prioritise the interests of 717 like-minded investors worldwide by focusing on assets that combine excellent long-term risk/reward characteristics with broad economic and social benefits to the community. As a signatory to The United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment, IFM actively engages on sustainability issues with the companies in which we invest with the aim of enhancing their net performance while minimising investment risk. Operating globally from offices in Melbourne, Sydney, London, Berlin, Zurich, Amsterdam, Milan, New York, Houston, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo, IFM manages investments across infrastructure equity, debt, listed equities and private equity assets. For more information, visit www.ifminvestors.com