Engagement & Voting

SAM’s engagement approach – a broad impact

Engagement
SAM’s unique approach to engagement starts with a comprehensive annual Corporate Sustainability Assessment to measure companies’ sustainability performance. This serves as a platform for ongoing engagement that is structured, rigorous, and has a broad reach. The assessment provides SAM with a vehicle to communicate investors’ expectations to companies regarding sustainability issues we believe could have an impact on financial performance. Each sustainability issue included in our assessment represents an area where we seek to identify best practices and encourage companies to improve their performance.

Each year, our questionnaire reaches the 2,500 largest companies worldwide, with close to 700 companies actively participating in the assessment. Our approach, based on the annual SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment, opens a direct communication channel with senior management and is an effective way to maintain an ongoing dialogue with change agents within companies. As a result, SAM’s research analysts have developed longstanding relationships with the participating companies over the years. This allows us to continually refine the assessment process.

Voting
SAM also recognizes that proxy voting is a key component of active ownership, and has therefore adopted the voting policies of its parent company, Robeco.