Legg Mason recently announced that we have joined the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) – an industry group representing investors from across Australia and New Zealand who are focused on responsible, ethical and impact investing.
RIAA seeks to increase the amount of capital invested responsibly by providing valuable information to its constituents, creating awareness and demand for RI products, and by approving funds via its Certification Program.
The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) assess responsible investment activities across the industry each year. Their review of 2017 has been published and Martin Currie has achieved A+ ratings for its responsible investment activities.
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For the second year running, the PRI has awarded Martin Currie, an investment affiliate of Legg Mason (NYSE:LM) an A+ (highest performance band) in all three of its top-level categories: ‘Strategy and Governance’, ‘Incorporation’ and ‘Active Ownership’. Additionally, across all sub categories, Martin Currie is in the top quartile of the investment manager peer group. Notably Martin Currie is in the top 9% for Integration – confirmation that ESG is truly embedded in the firm’s investment process.
Gables Residential is a vertically integrated operating company wholly owned by Clarion Partners, LLC, a Legg Mason company.
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July 27, 2018 /3BL Media/ - Gables Residential continues to develop sustainable buildings often recognized by multiple levels of green certifications. Most recently, Gables was awarded Multifamily Builder of the Year in the state of Florida by the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC). Gables was not only recognized for achieving the highest of recognitions, but also for its dedication to promoting a positive environmental, social and economic impact across the country.
As one of the companies in the top 50% of JUST Capital’s industry rankings, Legg Mason is included as a holding in the recently-launched Goldman Sachs JUST US Large Cap Equity Exchange-Traded Fund (NYSE:JUST).
In 2017, Legg Mason was named to the list of America’s 100 Most JUST Companies – an annual ranking by JUST Capital and Forbes, which ranks the largest publicly-traded corporations in the US on the issues Americans care most about, including worker pay and treatment, job creation, healthy products and communities and environmental impact, among others.
Legg Mason today issued its Annual Report for the fiscal year 2018 1, highlighting our strategy for achieving the Company’s mission of Investing to Improve Lives™ with a focus on responsible investing. How quickly Legg Mason adapts to the changing industry dynamics will drive our ability to serve investors and reward shareholders.
We’re often asked about the most important ESG themes that investors should consider. As bottom-up, active managers, we unsurprisingly tend to focus on those issues that are most material for each investment case. That said, there are several overarching ESG topics that we believe are increasingly important for investors to be aware of right now.
BALTIMORE, April 20, 2018 /3BL Media/ — Legg Mason, Inc., the global asset management firm, has $159 billion of total long-term AUM (as of March 31, 2017) invested in Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) products and strategies. To celebrate Earth Day 2018, its investment affiliates have provided five ways in which ESG factors can be used to identify solid investments that care for the future of our environment. Long tracked by institutions, ESG factors are an increasingly critical priority for retail investors.
Governance is a fundamental determinant of long-term performance, as is a company’s environmental and social track record, making it a reliable proxy for wider sustainability.
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By Martin Currie
As bottom-up investors, our process starts at the company level. We subject all candidates for inclusion in our high-conviction portfolios to rigorous fundamental analysis and peer review. ESG analysis is embedded in this assessment, influencing key assumptions such as the cost of capital, revenues and expenses. From this we can seek to estimate a company’s intrinsic value.
Governance is a fundamental determinant of long-term performance, as is a company’s environmental and social track record, making it a reliable proxy for wider sustainability.
Annual Impact Report outlines ClearBridge Investment’s efforts in public company engagement over the past three decades
Press Release
NEW YORK, April 10, 2018 /3BL Media/ – ClearBridge Investments, LLC has published its 2017 Impact Report, “Making an Impact through Active Equity Ownership.” ClearBridge has been engaging with public companies to campaign for improvement on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues for more than three decades. This report outlines the evolution of ESG investing at the firm and how, as active shareholders, ClearBridge measures its impact on the companies it owns across its strategies.