Our Engagement Policies

"Engagement is one of the asset management industry’s most crucial responsibilities as we strive to build a more sustainable world. It is vital not only to focus on voting, but also to sustain constant dialogue with companies, including in bond portfolio management."

Ibrahima KOBAR, CIO, Head of Fixed Income & Research

More than ever, engagement is a priority development area for Ostrum AM. Its engagement policy is based on four key principles:

Constant dialogue with companies we invest in and with debt issuers

Ostrum Asset Management set out eight themes for engagement on environmental, social and governance themes in 2020, covering both our equity and bond portfolio management. Each individual department – equity and bond – then draws on these shared themes to focus on specific initiatives in line with our updated voting policy.

  1. Support mitigation and adapt to climate change by reducing CO2 emissions to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and by managing physical and transition risks.
  2. Limit impact on environmental ecosystem by optimizing resource management and by safeguarding biodiversity.
  3. Promote human capital by maintaining strong relationships with staff and by ensuring staff’s and subcontractors’ health and safety.
  4. Enhance relationships with stakeholders by guaranteeing human rights in supply chain and by maintaining strong relationships with local communities.
  5. Ensure consumer security ad protect their data by ensuring consumers’ security and health and by ensuring their data security.
  6. Safeguard business ethics by rolling out an anti-corruption policy and by ensuring a transparent tax policy.
  7. Balance powers and compensation by implementing balanced governance and by making the compensation policy transparent.
  8. Improve data transparency by facilitating access to financial and non-financial data.
Our Engagement With Companies
149
meetings and contact with companies
by end December 2022, on financial and non-financial topics
91
meetings and conference calls
on financial and non-financial topics, by end December 2022
123
companies were subject to an engagement effort
in 2022.

Active and responsible voting policy

Ostrum AM holds itself to the highest standards as a responsible shareholder and takes a stringent and exacting approach to the exercise of voting duties at shareholder meetings, as part of a comprehensive voting universe addressing environmental, social and governance themes. We pursue a transparent approach and as such we disclose details on all our votes from the shareholder meetings we attend.
100% participation in votes in our voting scope
Download our voting policy and our voting rights exercise report

Engagement initiatives

Ostrum Asset Management pursues a consistent policy and with this in mind, we go beyond the individual engagement initiatives coordinated by our Portfolio Management teams. Each year, we pledge to get involved in collaborative initiatives that resonate with our own convictions.

Our last three collaborative commitments in 2021:

  1. CDP - Science-Based Targets (SBT) Campaign
    The CDP engagement campaign commits companies to adopt science-based (SBT) emission reduction targets. A global investor network draws on this engagement to urge hundreds of the most impactful companies to set science-based targets.
    Read more about the CDP Campaign
  2. Global Investor Statement to Governments on the Climate Crisis
    This announcement is coordinated by the seven founding partners of The Investor Agenda, and is signed by 457 investors representing more than $41 trillion in assets. Drawn up before for the COP 26, the statement calls on governments to raise their climate ambition and implement robust policies to meet their goals.
    Read more about the 5 emergency actions requested by the Global Investor Statement to Governments on the Climate Crisis.
  3. Investors for a Just Transition
    This initiative, managed by Finance for Tomorrow, brings together asset managers and holders from the financial ecosystem to promote a socially acceptable transition to low-carbon economies. In order to move towards a just transition, this coalition has a triple objective: to encourage companies integrate the just transition into their environmental strategy, to create an academic partnership and to pilot a “Just Transition Hub”.
    Read more about the Investors for a Just Transition coalition

Developing and promoting ESG standards

Ostrum AM plays an active role in developing the responsible investment standards of the future across various industry groups and bodies, supporting the promotion and standardization of CSR and ESG practices.

INSIGHTS CSR / ESG
MySustainableCorner gives you monthly news on the sustainable bond market.  In 2023, sustainable bonds are still appealling, supported by investors ’and issuers’ CSR policies. Find a mid-year recap on green bonds, social bonds, sustainability bonds and sustainability-linked bonds, as well as regulatory information.
07/10/2023
Reading time : 15 min.
INSIGHTS CSR / ESG
The year 2023 marks the 30th anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on Biological Diversity. And yet, while major global forums – COP 15 in Montreal in December, the International Seabed Authority Council in Kingston and the One Forest Summit in Libreville in March – have punctuated the news in recent months, a detailed understanding of biodiversity issues is still limited to a college of experts. The climate threat has long dominated political, economic and media debates, with many believing that the fight against climate change automatically goes hand in hand with the preservation of life. Yet while the consequences of biodiversity loss may seem less glaring than climate catastrophes, their scale is enough to make you break out in a cold sweat: we're on the verge of a sixth mass extinction, with species disappearing at a rate 100 to 1,000 times higher than the natural rate; almost 75% of terrestrial environments and 40% of marine ecosystems are reportedly already degraded. 
06/19/2023
Reserved for pros
INSIGHTS CSR / ESG
Investors, whether institutional, banks or retail, are all looking for investments in line with their convictions, especially in terms of environment. Beyond the climate concern, they seek to participate in changes according to a Just Transition, which is socially responsible. These ambitions support the sustainable bond market, with the search for impact solutions, both from issuers – including governments – and from investors.
03/17/2023
Reserved for pros