Ontario Teachers' Publishes Annual Responsible Investing and Climate Strategy Report

Report outlines long-term plan to create a lasting, positive impact

TORONTO, Sept. 1, 2022 /CNW/ - Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers') today published its annual Responsible Investing and Climate Strategy Report. The report provides an overview of our responsible investing and corporate governance activities, and how we are harnessing our capital to make a real-world impact while earning attractive investment returns to help fulfil the pension promise to plan members. 

"We are living during a period of rapid geopolitical, environmental, and social change, while at the same time stakeholder expectations of companies are higher than ever. Against this backdrop, it has never been more important to invest responsibly and with a clear sense of purpose," said Ziad Hindo, Chief Investment Officer. "While integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance factors have long been central to our investment approach, we are increasingly seeking broader opportunities to use our capital and expertise to deliver a lasting positive impact.  We believe our focus on investing to make a mark around the world will deliver better risk-adjusted returns over the long term."

In the report, Ontario Teachers' provides an overview of its multifaceted climate strategy, which includes helping our portfolio companies decrease their emissions, investing in green assets, helping high emitters decarbonize, issuing green bonds, understanding, and mitigating physical and transition risks, and developing partnerships to amplify our efforts.

Key highlights on the delivery of our climate strategy noted in the report include an update on how we invested or committed over $5 billion into green or transition assets in 2021, advanced against our bold interim net-zero targets by reducing our portfolio emissions intensity by 32% in 2021 vs. its 2019 baseline, and our newly-stated intention to selectively invest around $5 billion in high emitting businesses (referred to as High Carbon Transmission assets) with the express goal of helping them rapidly decarbonize.

"Our climate strategy is designed to drive real-world impact.  We recognize the urgency of climate change and have a multiple faceted strategy to reduce emissions in our investments and support the transition to a net-zero future," said Jo Taylor, President and Chief Executive Officer. "In addition to our broad climate strategy, we are targeting to allocate around $5 billion toward High Carbon Transition assets, and to use that capital to increase our impact on high emitting businesses while also providing solid investment returns for our members."

Additional highlights from this year's report include:

• Further details on our progress against our interim emissions intensity reduction targets.
• How we applied our influence on private company boards to achieve our target of having over 30% representation of women across all the board seats we control, one year ahead of our target.
• How we used our voice for changing, voting on approximately 300-environmental, social or governance-related shareholder proposals.

The actions we are taking today position us to continue delivering retirement security for our members while shaping a better future for all. We look forward to sharing more on our journey toward a more sustainable and equitable future.

About Ontario Teachers'

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers') is a global investor with net assets of $242.5 billion as at June 30, 2022. We invest in more than 50 countries in a broad array of assets including public and private equities, fixed income, credit, commodities, natural resources, infrastructure, real estate and venture growth to deliver retirement income for 333,000 working members and pensioners.

With offices in Hong Kong, London, San Francisco, Singapore and Toronto, our more than 350 investment professionals bring deep expertise in industries ranging from agriculture to artificial intelligence. We are a fully funded defined benefit pension plan and have earned an annual total-fund net return of 9.6% since the plan's founding in 1990. At Ontario Teachers', we don't just invest to make a return, we invest to shape a better future for the teachers we serve, the businesses we back, and the world we live in. For more information, visit otpp.com and follow us on Twitter @OtppInfo.

SOURCE Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan

Dan Madge, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Phone: [phone], Email: [email protected]