Mirova Global Sustainable Equity Fund: impact report 2023

A decade later: reinforced convictions and strengthened resources

Jens : Just over ten years ago, we launched an active, multi-thematic fund with sustainability fully integrated because we were – and remain – convinced that it offers investors a better way of investing from a risk-return perspective. We also believe that every company, including ours, plays a role in how the world will look in the future, for better or worse, and we want to make a positive impact overall. We built this portfolio to marry financial performance with impact, which are inextricably linked over the long term.
That may sound simple enough but when we created the strategy in 2013, bringing together multiple long-term themes with a sustainability approach was a relatively novel concept. Over the last ten years, the sustainable investment landscape has grown and evolved to become more mainstream and regulated, yet its credibility is still challenged and it is increasingly politicized in some markets. This pushback is to be expected, as with anything that experiences the significant growth this space has seen, or that disrupts business as usual. Our convictions, however, have remained unchanged. We believe that combining multiple secular economic trends and sustainability in one approach will drive better investment returns and sustainability outcomes over time. We also believe that this type of diversified, multi-thematic approach can meet the needs of large and small investors alike. Importantly, with a high-capacity strategy, we find opportunity to gain easier access to the management teams, and more of a voice with companies to help positively influence their practices.
 

Hua : Looking at the various factors of our past and continued success, our people and our disciplined process are key. We three portfolio managers work together very closely to co-manage the strategy day-to-day. We are supported by fundamental and sustainability research analysts, with both teams helping us to meet our dual objective: to deliver better financial return and a portfolio with more compelling sustainability impact than the broad market. Over the years, Mirova has continuously invested in its expertise and now has one of the largest sustainability research teams in the industry, with one of the longest track records. Contributions from other teams at Mirova are also critical to our success, particularly in our ability to develop meaningful and transparent partnerships with our clients. In addition, our investment process, which begins with long-term thinking around the trends that are shaping the economy, is essential to the strategy's success. We believe that this process is time-proven, and we are confident that it will continue to deliver results going forward.

Soliane : Although I joined the team in a portfolio management capacity in recent years, the well-defined process and my previous knowledge of most of the companies in the portfolio have enabled a smooth transition. We also attribute our success in part to the diversity of our team. Jens, Hua and I and the broader team come from different educational and cultural backgrounds, which has been invaluable in our ability to bring different perspectives to our work, to collaborate with and to challenge each other. This strong team culture is also something we have worked to strengthen, and this is evident in the recruitment we did throughout 2023.

Manon : The sustainability research philosophy has also remained stable over the past ten years. The objective of the team has always been to identify companies that, in addition to their exposure to the secular transitions, can positively contribute to the sustainability challenges ahead, including climate change, biodiversity loss, health crises, or rising inequalities, while managing their sustainability risks very well. As the sustainable investment landscape has evolved and become more mature, we have reinforced our ESG2 and impact assessment methodology, as well as our engagement and voting strategy. We have also continuously innovated to better measure the impact of our portfolios.

Jens : We are very proud of what we’ve accomplished for our clients and how we’ve grown as a team in the last ten years. We strive every day to promote this culture of respect and collaboration, creating a working environment that has often helped us in identifying opportunities or overlooked areas of risks. Looking forward, we aim to continue to leverage our capabilities to deliver on our objective to offer a resilient portfolio that will help investors to better weather these structural transitions.