Making sustainable investing easier for group retirement Clients
Sun Life’s Group Retirement Services (GRS) launched its proprietary Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) evaluation framework for its core investment platform of 23 investment managers and over 140 investment options. This new framework will be instrumental in helping plan sponsors and members make informed decisions when it comes to sustainable investing. Sustainable investing is one of three core pillars of Sun Life’s new sustainability plan.
While a variety of ESG scoring providers are available, at both a fund and security level, no single provider covers all GRS investment platform options. In isolation, an ESG score for a fund can create confusion and lack relevance for Clients. GRS’ approach for Clients has two objectives:
- Identify ESG leaders (managers and funds), in every major asset category offered on the GRS core investment platform using proprietary criteria, and
- Make it easy for plan sponsors to understand the level of ESG integration for the investment options they offer in their retirement savings plans.
The new evaluation framework is an expansion of the strong governance process GRS has in place today for its investment platform. Having a resilient and sustainable workplace plan is more important than ever. This added guidance will help Clients make more informed decisions about the investment choices in their savings plans.
