ART signals expansion of SI team

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist, Financial Newswire

18 August 2023

Australian Retirement Trust (ART) has announced its plans to grow its Sustainable Investments team to better align its $240 billion portfolio with sustainable investing (SI) and net zero goals.

The announcement comes as the super fund looks to release its Net Zero 2050 roadmap, which will detail its current climate targets and proposals to support the net zero transition within the portfolio, and boost its work in the green economy space.

“At Australian Retirement Trust, we believe that investing for the long-term in the best financial interests of our more than 2.2 million members includes managing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks, like climate change, today,” ART’s Head of Sustainable Investments, Nicole Bradford, said.

“As a systemic risk, if climate change is left unabated, it will impact the global economy. This means that to act in member’s best financial interests and help protect their future financial wellbeing, funds should be considering climate change alongside other traditional financial matters throughout all aspects of the investment process.

“We now need to focus on building strong internal capabilities to support the investments team to implement this ambitious plan.

Eight new roles have been advertised by the fund based within environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments, research, reporting, analysis and stewardship, ranging from portfolio managers to analysts.

“Members are becoming far more conscious of ESG issues and there is a growing demand to understand how their retirement savings are meeting sustainable objectives,” Bradford said.

“For this reason, we are looking to grow our team to further drive implementation of ESG and climate change activities across our investment portfolio, as well as build out and deliver a number of areas of focus the Fund is undertaking.

“That’s what my team are focussed on supporting, so it’s an exciting time to be at the heart of something that is very member-focussed.”