Sustainable Development
A committed and pragmatic approach to support sustainable growth
"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
Brundtland Report (1987), “Our Common Future”:
Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development
Moneta's employees are aware of the challenges linked to global warming and the importance that everyone's behaviour needs to change to preserve natural resources and the environment. There is a real sensitivity within our teams on this subject. This takes two forms at Moneta:
Acting as responsible investors: developing a constructive approach around our stock selection process to reflect our environmental sensitivity in our portfolios
Acting as committed citizens: adopting daily actions and an attitude that takes into account our impact on the environment
DEVELOP OUR SUSTAINABILITY CRITERIA
Our sustainability methodology ties in with the valuation work we do
We use our knowledge of companies and management: our detailed understanding of the companies we invest in puts us in a better position to detect the ESG opportunities and risks of each company in our universe. Furthermore, regular meetings with management also provide us with an invaluable asset in assessing the ESG actions developed by companies.
Remaining pragmatic: our approach is dictated by financial materiality. This is illustrated by the following two points: (1) We weight the importance of controversies internally based on our own analysis. (2) We are willing to judge concrete results and actions rather than the written policies a company may produce.
Forming our own opinion: this is obvious in fundamental analysis and must also be in ESG analysis. For us, it is a question of not giving in to fashions, a temptation that is all the stronger when we are faced with rapidly evolving issues where the consensus may vary according to the concerns of the moment. In this context, it is key for us to maintain our independence of mind, based on our in-depth analysis of companies, our management experience and our pragmatism.
Several key elements of our ESG investment process
An integrated ESG approach: the Portfolio Management Team is in charge of the ESG process, and we do not use a separate ESG team to perform our analysis. We believe that this non-siloed approach allows us to reflect ESG issues more accurately in our valuation models.
A proprietary rating system, Moneta VIDA: The use of our own rating has has enabled us to develop an approach that is true to our principles. Moneta VIDA allows us to (1) diversify the sources of information so as not to be locked into issuers' documentation, (2) reflect data that is sometimes difficult to quantify and therefore ignored by ESG rating agencies, (3) integrate our knowledge of management, and (4) better understand the Small and Mid Caps, which are often penalised by external ratings due to a lack of resources comparable to those of the Large Caps.
A historical involvement in the promotion of good governance practices: since the beginning, we have demonstrated vigilance in the area of governance. When we have deemed it necessary, we have not hesitated to initiate corporate governance actions using all the means at our disposal to defend the interests of our shareholders. This shareholder commitment remains a constant at Moneta.
