USS publishes Stewardship Code report

USS, the UK’s largest private pension scheme by way of assets, has today published an in-depth report on its approach to Responsible Investment – evidencing its commitment to stewardship, sustainability and good corporate governance.

USS’s Stewardship Code Report 2022 sets out how the trustee puts responsible investment into practice, by:

• Integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into its investment decisions across asset classes.
• Using its influence as a major institutional investor to promote good ESG practices through engaging, voting and applying stewardship.
• Working with policymakers and regulators to ensure the concerns of long-term asset owners and investors are clearly understood.

Focusing on the financial year 2021/22, the report evidences USS’s commitment to being an active, responsible steward of the scheme’s assets (worth around £95bn as at 31 December 2021) and, specifically, how it has delivered against the Financial Reporting Council’s 12 Stewardship Principles.

Key highlights for the year include:

• Making progress on our Net Zero ambition
• Introducing a ‘climate tilt’ to our portfolio
• Taking action on human rights
• Working with real assets to create sustainable value

Dame Kate Barker, Chair of the USS Board, said: “The pensions being promised to our members today will need to be paid decades into the future, so it is in the scheme’s interests to encourage the companies, assets and markets in which we invest to focus on delivering sustainable investor value over the very long term.

“This report gives a compelling account of how we seek to be an agent of positive change in delivering against our responsibilities and commitments, for the benefit of current and future members, their families and communities, and to society as a whole.”