On the go: Faith Ward, chief responsible investment officer at Brunel Pension Partnership, has been named environmental finance personality of the year by news and analysis service Environmental Finance for her work making Brunel a “sustainability leader”.
Last year, Ward launched Brunel’s first climate change policy and, with her team, published a ‘Responsible investment and stewardship outcomes report’ looking at Brunel’s environmental, social and governance and responsible investment performance across a range of themes, including climate change.
She has also overseen the publication of the ‘Carbon metrics report’, which provides detail on the carbon footprint of Brunel’s portfolios and their holdings.
Late last year, Ward was appointed chair of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change. In spring 2021, the IIGCC launched its Net Zero Investment Framework, the first comprehensive framework to enable investors to implement the Paris Agreement.
Environment Finance said: “The depth of reporting she has enabled at Brunel goes far beyond regulatory requirements and fits with her belief that real progress requires radical transparency.”
Pensions Expert reported in May on the success of Brunel Pension Partnership, which is comprised of 10 local government pension schemes and has around £30bn in assets under management, in reducing the carbon intensity of all its active portfolios – and all but one of its index-tracking portfolios – by at least 7 per cent compared with its 2019 baseline.
In its ‘2021 Responsible investment and stewardship outcomes report’, Brunel reported it has increased the percentage of women on boards of companies within its active portfolios. It also highlighted its engagement on 3,101 issues at 881 companies, achieving 1,050 milestones, and its engagement with banks to change practices on fossil fuel lending.
Ward previously worked at the Environment Agency Pension Fund and helped to make it the first UK pension fund to publish a plan to invest for a temperature rise of less than 2C.
