Pendal
Contributing to our communities
We are proud of the positive impact that we have in our communities and encourage our employees to volunteer their time and talent to manage and champion charitable endeavours. Our regional Community Committees organise fundraising initiatives and identify and encourage opportunities. This ensures that support is given to charities or causes to which employees feel connected to.
In the wake of the devastating bushfires in Australia of 2019/2020, a global initiative was introduced whereby the Group matched donations made by employees to registered charities supporting the Australian bushfire recovery process. An additional ‘leave type’ was also created for Australian employees directly affected by the bushfires or involved in voluntary emergency services.
Pendal Australia’s ongoing strategic charity partnership with the Running for Premature Babies Foundation continued during the year. Contributions included fundraising at a virtual trivia night as well as a food drive for parents caring for premature babies at the Royal Hospital for Women (Sydney).
Our employees also supported the following charities:
Health & wellbeing |
Society |
Diversity & Inclusion |
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JOHCM UK Equity Income Fund engagement with an oil and gas major
In the year, the team engaged with an international oil and gas company, after identifying concerns about its capital allocation priorities. It was clear that the company needed to accelerate its investments in low carbon and renewable energy projects and that, to fund this multi-year move, its regular dividend distribution would have to be lowered. Despite the shortfall in income that shareholders would receive, the team felt that such a move would be in all stakeholders’ interests and in time would reduce the company’s cost of capital. Subsequently the company announced a 50 per cent cut in their annual dividend to fund an ambitious expansion of their low carbon activities, as well as announcing a commitment to steadily reduce its hydrocarbon production over the next decade.
Modern slavery
Modern slavery is a form of human rights abuse estimated to affect 40 million people globally. It relates to human trafficking and slavery-like practices such as servitude, forced labour, deceptive recruiting, forced marriage and debt bondage.
Modern slavery is more than just a regulatory requirement. At Pendal, we believe we have a fundamental duty to help address these types of harmful practices.
Regulation to address modern slavery is now in place in the UK and Australia. We welcome these regulations and broader efforts to eliminate modern slavery around the world. We believe our actions in this space will not only help vulnerable people, but enhance our ability to manage risks within the Group and the investments we make on behalf of clients.
In the UK we are required to report under the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015. Our Modern Slavery Act Statement is available here on the JOHCM website.
From 2021, Pendal Group is required to comply with the Australian Modern Slavery Act 2018, which has additional components to that of the UK.
During FY20, a cross-function working group enhanced several practices to better identify our potential contribution as a business to eradicating modern slavery, and avoid complicity in modern slavery practices.
Enhancements included:
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Ongoing development and improvement of the vendor risk management and outsourcing framework to assess our suppliers and outsourced service providers and to better understand their operations and business model to identify modern slavery risks.
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Application of technology to support human rights-related company and country risk assessments, as well as monitoring services which help alert us to potential incidents.
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Introduction of mandatory training for all staff to raise awareness of modern slavery and communicate expectations to employees of the role they play in assisting Pendal to manage modern slavery risks.
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Design of a proprietary assessment tool to assess modern slavery risk within our Australian equities’ holdings, to support more detailed reporting for Australian clients who also need to meet their own obligations under the Australian Act.
Further enhancements will continue in FY21 and the first annual Modern Slavery Statement under the Australian Act will be published in March 2021.
Climate
Pendal Group acknowledges that climate-related risks present significant challenges for humanity and the planet, with consequences for physical and financial assets.
Responding to climate-related risks and opportunities requires ongoing attention. We seek to evolve our approach in line with improving scientific understanding and a tightening regulatory environment, as the world transitions to a low‑carbon economy.
We welcome the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). This has provided a framework to enable companies, and investors alike, to better articulate how risks and opportunities stemming from a changing climate will impact their business or investments, with a view to support whole-of-system financial stability.
We are committed to sharing our perspectives with our clients, and other stakeholders, as well as supporting industry calls for more robust and relevant climate-related disclosure. As part of our commitment to responding to climate change we continue to evolve our response over the course of FY21.
Carbon emissions
| Emissions | Pendal Australia | JOHCM | Total - Group | Notes |
| Scope 1* - Tonnes CO2e (*direct emissions from known or controlled source) |
0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Scope 2* - Tonnes CO2e (*indirect emissions from purchased energy utilities) |
341.1 | N/A | 341.1 | Pendal Australia emissions only |
| Scope 3* - Tonnes CO2e (*all other indirect emissions) |
- | - | 248.3 | Group corporate travel (flights, accommodation, taxis) only |
Given the nature of our business, emissions from our own business operations are immaterial. However, as we enhance our centralised reporting functions across the Group, we will be able to better understand a key aspect of our Scope 3 emissions – those emissions from activities associated with our investments.
Waste management
Due to the nature of our business and employee numbers, Pendal has a very small direct environmental footprint. Irrespective, we continue to seek to minimise the environmental impact of our operations through the introduction of initiatives to support this goal.
In FY20, we reduced our impact on the environment through the introduction of a waste management system and enhanced printing systems. To ensure we monitor our impact moving forward, we have set a target to reduce waste going to landfill by 20 per cent by the end of calendar year 2020.
Waste management - Pendal Group Head Office only
| Waste type | KG | Percentage of total waste |
| Landfill | 2554.7 | 60.80% |
| Secure bin (paper) | 613.7 | 14.61% |
| Paper | 584.6 | 13.91% |
| Mixed recycling | 239.2 | 5.69% |
| Organic waste | 209.7 | 4.99% |
| Total | 4201.9 | 100% |