Co-operative Group Pension Scheme: recommendations

From the information provided it appears that the Co-operative Pension Scheme has an underlying commitment to responsible investment, but has not yet fully translated this into detailed policy, implementation, monitoring or transparency. Our recommendations would include:

RI policy, implementation and monitoring

• Identifying specific ESG risks and opportunities for incorporation into research and investment decisions.
• Establishing clear measures to ensure fund managers' performance on ESG issues is carefully monitored and regularly assessed.
• The use of internal and/or external dedicated resources to undertake ESG engagement on behalf of the fund. 
• Consideration of membership of the UN PRI, both for itself and as a screen re fund manager selection

Transparency

Given the fundamental importance of transparency to responsible investment, significantly increasing the public areas of its website, to include public disclosure of:

• The full Statement of Investment Principles
• Detailed statements of RI policy, policy implementation and performance monitoring
• Full voting records and summary voting analysis
• Detailed ESG engagement initiatives and outcomes
• The scheme's full annual reports, which should include a detailed section on responsible investment

Download Co-operative Group Pension Scheme's full scoresheet

If you are a member of this pension scheme, why not email your pension scheme to ask whether they have implemented all or any of these recommendations.