REST grants responsible investment mandate

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist, Financial Newswire

15 February 2022

Australian industry super fund, REST, has awarded an environmental, social and governance (ESG) mandate to Parametric Portfolio Associates LLC and Calvert Research and Management to further diversify Rest’s Sustainable Growth ethical investment offering.

Under the mandate, REST will implement ethical and sustainable screens and tilts in its real assets portfolio with assistance from Parametric and Calvert.

The portfolio includes global listed infrastructure and global and Australian-listed real estate investment trusts (REITs).

“These additional sector mandates allow for further diversification for REST members invested in Sustainable Growth, and also adhere to the option’s strict ethical and sustainability requirements,” Andrew Lill, Chief Investment Officer at REST, said.

“Adding listed real assets to the option’s existing unlisted property and infrastructure assets at this time is expected to provide further resilience in an inflationary environment.

“REST’s purpose is to help our members achieve their personal best retirement outcome.

“With Sustainable Growth, our aim is to provide our younger cohort of members with more choice in how their money is invested, while also delivering a high-performing growth option that outperforms both peers and the benchmark over the long run.”

Lill also said this development aligns with REST’s roadmap for a sustainable future and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

“Sustainable Growth is just one example of the actions we are taking and provides an option for REST members who regard ethical investment as a vital means to achieving their personal best.”

“As a pioneer in Responsible Investing, we recognised decades ago that strong Environmental, Social and Governance practices can have positive implications for corporate performance,” Anthony Eames, Director of Responsible Investment Strategy at Calvert, said.

“We look forward to working with REST to deliver a highly customised investment solution reflecting REST’s ESG priorities while leveraging Calvert’s proprietary insights.”

Chris Briant, Head of Australia and New Zealand at Parametric, said he was pleased the firm was appointed as REST’s implementation partner.

“This is due to our expertise in providing custom indexing solutions and reducing frictions like transaction costs, taxes, brokerage, foreign exchange costs and unintended exposures for super funds,” he said.

Parametric and Calvert are both part of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, the asset management arm of Morgan Stanley.