Recent developments in stewardship

Below are some of our recent developments in the area of stewardship and ESG:

• We achieved FRC Stewardship Code signatory status for our 2020, 2021 and 2022 stewardship reports
• We held over 1,400 company meetings and voted at over 800 meetings and on more than 11,000 resolutions
• We actively participated in industry initiatives including The Investor Forum and Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC).
• As signatories of the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAMi), we undertook analysis on alignment and engagement priorities
• We developed an engagement framework, initially focusing on companies that are contributing materially to our firm’s financed emissions
• We received an improved PRI score, scoring four stars across all categories
• We updated our voting policy including our principles on our diversity and climate approach
• We continued our involvement in industry initiatives on human rights, particularly modern slavery, through The Investor Forum and the Find it, Fix it, Prevent it initiative
• We reviewed our policy on firmwide weapon exclusions and agreed extensions to its scope, which we will implement in 2024
• Additional resource was added to our stewardship team in October 2023, making us a team of four, with additional support across the business
• We increased our participation in the Investment Association's stewardship and corporate governance initiatives, with involvement in a number of sustainability-related working groups and committees, including as members of the Climate Change Working Group, the Next Generation Investment Committee and the Investment Committee
• We completed year 5, and launched year 6, of the Artemis Profit Hunt in partnership with Arrival Education
• We contributed to the FRC Lab's projects on ESG data and consumption, and materiality
• We became more involved in a range of diversity initiatives at firm and industry level, the latter principally through the Diversity Project and its mental health, working families and smart-working workstreams, and its Pathway programme, which focuses on developing the female portfolio managers of the future. We also launched an internal campaign to collect additional staff demographic data on a voluntary basis
• We publish our annual sustainability-related disclosures for SFDR Article 8 and 9 funds on our website, including enhancements identified following the previous year’s publication. In the UK, we are actively participating in SDR developments, principally through the Investment Association
• We achieved FNG Siegel labels for two of our Article 8 funds – Artemis Funds (Lux) Short Dated Global High Yield Bond and Global High Yield Bond. Artemis is one of only three investment firms to receive this award for high yield bond funds