Our Commitment to ESG

We believe integrating ESG factors in our investment process is in the best interests of our investors. We are committed to engaging bond issuers on ESG matters and advancing ESG through peer collaboration and public action.

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ESG Policy

RPIA ESG Policy

We consider Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) factors when making investment decisions for all the strategies we manage. When we include these factors alongside traditional financial metrics, we are able to think more broadly about risk, and make more prudent investment decisions. In other words, it is in the best interests of our clients to integrate ESG into our process.

Through our in-depth credit research, RPIA is in regular communication with the management teams of the issuers in which we invest. We use this platform as a way to champion ESG analysis, discussing with companies the importance of ESG-related disclosures and the risks that we see from an ESG perspective.

Download our ESG Policy

Our Publications

Putting the 'G' Back in ESG

Value vs. Values

Fixed Income and the Transition to Net-Zero

Read More (Fixed Income and the Transition to Net-Zero)

Financial Institutions - In Scope

Read More (Financial Institutions - In Scope)

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Where's Your Ambition?

ESG Insights

Putting the 'G' Back in ESG

The Importance of ESG Engagement by Fixed Income Investors

The recent failure of ESG darling, SVB, prompted an important discussion on the importance of making governance considerations a priority. Fixed income investors have growing influence to engage with issuers and strengthen governance practices. In this paper, we include a detailed example of our own engagement practices.

DEI Beyond the Abbreviation

Leveraging diversity and promoting inclusion

A culture of inclusion is key to retaining talent in this competitive job market and several studies have persuasively argued that diversity in a team leads to better performance. Many firms are proactively looking to broaden the diversity of their teams with this goal in mind. In this article, we revisit why inclusion matters and suggest ways for managers to foster more inclusive environments.

The Great Wealth Transfer: The Future is Female

Understanding the incoming wave of female investors

For years, businesses have been discussing the changes in consumer behaviour as younger generations become decision-makers; the same is true for wealth and investment management. We are in the midst of the largest wealth transfer in history – by 2030, American women will likely control $30 trillion of inherited financial assets from baby boomers. What does this mean for those helping families manage their wealth?

RPIA Develops a Bespoke Fossil Fuel Exclusion Strategy for Institutional Investors

Introducing RP Broad Corporate Bond (Fossil Fuel Exclusion)

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new strategy, RP Broad Corporate Bond (Fossil Fuel Exclusion), designed in partnership with our client, University of Toronto Asset Management (UTAM), and in collaboration with FTSE Russell. Learn more about the strategy and how the first-of-its-kind screening approach was developed!

ESG Memberships

UN Principles for Responsible Investing

As a signatory of the internationally-recognized United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI), organizations can publicly demonstrate their commitment to responsible investment and place it at the heart of a global community seeking to build a more sustainable financial system.

FSB Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures

The FSB Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) aims to help companies understand what financial markets want from disclosures to measure and respond to climate change risks and encourage firms to align their disclosures with investors’ needs.

30% Club

The 30% Club’s mission is to reach at least 30% of representation of all women on all boards and C-suites. Business leadership is vital to the mission, taking the issue beyond a specialist diversity effort and integrating it into enterprise-wide strategy development.

United Way ILEO Charter

The United Way Inclusive Local Economic Opportunity (ILEO) Charter is committed to increasing economic opportunity that is shared and inclusive. We will take action to address growing economic disparity, which is one of the biggest challenges of our time.

Canadian Coalition for Good Governance

The Canadian Coalition for Good Governance (CCGG) promotes good governance practices in Canadian public companies and the improvement of the regulatory environment to best align the interests of boards and management with those of their shareholders, and to promote the efficiency and effectiveness of the Canadian capital markets.

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) is a non-profit organization founded in 2011 that sets financial reporting standards and develops and disseminates sustainability accounting standards. As a member, we can partake in the organization's mission to help businesses around the world identify, manage, and report on the sustainability topics that matter most to their investors.

Climate Engagement Canada

Climate Engagement Canada (CEC) is a finance-led initiative that drives dialogue between finance and industry to promote a just transition to a net-zero economy. As a participant, we can be a part of CEC engagement activities that can help align Canada’s financial system with a low-carbon future.

Leveraging Our ESG Focus Through Targeted Portfolios

As we advance our ESG integration process, we explore opportunities to design targeted ESG portfolios, expanding on our carbon-reduced mandate. Targeted portfolios would have a specific ESG focus built around quantifiable and impactful factors. These future solutions may include issuers we believe are leaders in addressing certain ESG factors or may focus on companies exhibiting improvement in their ESG risk profiles. We continue to manage our existing Targeted Portfolio, the RP Broad Corporate Bond (Fossil Fuel Exclusion) strategy. This strategy has a dual mandate of producing 100 bps per annum of excess return above the index while maintaining a carbon intensity at least 10% lower than the carbon-reduced index.

Learn more about our Fossil Fuel Exclusion Strategy

2022 Sustainability Report

As global investment experts and stewards of our investors’ capital, we believe that sustainability plays an integral role in our investment philosophy and our business. In 2022, we continued to evolve and refine our beliefs regarding how we assess environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors and how they play a critical role in defining risk and opportunities - both for invested capital and for RPIA as a firm. To that end, our 2022 Sustainability Report has two focus areas: our role as an employer and our role as an asset manager.

Read the full report Download the PDF

RPIA 2022 Sustainability Report Cover Page

How we incorporate ESG in our firm and investment process

Within our firm

Climate Smart Certification: We partnered with Radicle to track and manage our greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, earning us the Climate Smart Certification.
Continuing Our DEI Journey: We continue to foster and promote DEI in our workplace through our Elevate Program, guided by our LEAD Pillars: Leadership, Empathy, Accountability, and Development.
Supporting Our Community: In addition to our charitable giving, we launched the RPIA ACE Program, which aims to provide academic and community empowerment for underrepresented and disenfranchised demographics. This program will include scholarships at Canadian universities and an internship program.

Throughout our investment process

Integration & Engagement: In 2022, we continued to leverage the RP Barometer, which we use to help guide how we approach engagements with issuers.
Targeted Portfolios: We launched our targeted portfolio, RP Broad Corporate Bond (Fossil Fuel Exclusion), in partnership with a university client. This strategy was designed to meet the university’s ESG investment goals.
Thought Leadership: We published several thought pieces on ESG topics, including climate risk, trends in sustainable finance in bond markets, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) themes, and the changing investor landscape.

ESG Steering Committee & Innovation Team Members

Sustainability Reports

RPIA 2021 Sustainability Report

RPIA 2020 Sustainability Report

TCFD Reports

RPIA 2022 TCFD Report

RPIA 2021 TCFD Report

UN PRI Assessment 2021

As a UN PRI signatory, RPIA believes that applying the six Principles better aligns our process with generating long-term stable returns for our investors. Most importantly, we believe it makes us better stewards of our investors’ capital. UN PRI provides an assessment framework for which an investor can benchmark its responsible investing practices. In 2021, RPIA received four out of five stars in both the Investment & Stewardship Policy and Direct – Fixed Income - Corporate modules, earning scores higher than the median.

Read our UN PRI 2021 Assessment Report

Read our UN PRI 2021 Transparency Report

Module	RPIA Star Score	RPIA Module Score	Module Median
Investment & Stewardship Policy		75	60
Direct - Fixed Income - Corporate		85	62

RPIA is a signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment and as part of our commitment, we consider Environmental, Social & Governance (“ESG”) factors as part of our firm-level activities, including our investment management process. ESG integration into our investment management process is supplemental to our core investment research and analysis functions and is conducted in accordance with relevant offering documents. ESG-related inputs into our investment process may vary between different funds and strategies, is subject to internal policies, and may be revised as a result of external market and economic factors, as well as strategic investment management decisions, suitability of investments and/or the stated investment objectives and strategies of the relevant RPIA managed portfolios. ESG integration into an investment process may introduce certain ESG-related risks and does not predict or imply positive future investment returns.