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AllianceBernstein: Kicking Off Climate Week in NYC
AllianceBernstein: Kicking Off Climate Week in NYC
Published 09-22-23
Submitted by AllianceBernstein
From AllianceBernstein's Chief Responsibility Officer, Erin Bigley:
"Hi everyone,
I’m Erin Bigley, AllianceBernstein’s Chief Responsibility Officer. As we kick off Climate Week in New York today, I’ve been reflecting on our teams’ climate-related work over the last year.
We believe that climate change can have a material impact on investment outcomes. As climate-related policies and regulations continue to increase in volume around the globe, we continue to strategize about how AB can prepare our business, and those in which we invest, for long-term success in a lower-carbon world.
A key part of this work is education and partnership.
AB recognizes the importance of ongoing education of both our investors and our clients on the latest research around climate issues. One way we do this is through our collaboration with Columbia University’s Climate School and its climate scientists. In fact, we are celebrating our fourth anniversary of our partnership with Columbia this week. One of the fruits of this partnership is the Natural Hazards Index Tool which we launched earlier this year alongside Columbia’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness to better examine physical climate risks across the US. This week, we are launching the Climate Academy 2.0 for our clients, an educational series covering several climate-related topics, including carbon markets, emerging markets and the energy transition, and China’s decarbonization challenges and opportunities.
We recognize that there are also material social risks related to climate change which should be managed. To better understand the intersections of these risks, we collaborated with eCornell, Cornell University’s External Education Unit, on an educational training for our investors that included a session on the elements of a Just Transition. We're also working on a publication with Walk Free—an international human rights organization—on the financial materiality at the intersection of climate change and human rights.
We are harnessing our climate knowledge to develop our Climate Transition Assessment and Engagement Framework—a tool designed to allow our investment teams to consistently identify material risks and opportunities for high-impact issuers within our clients’ portfolios and to signal where our investors should focus engagements with these issuers over the long term. The goal is to better understand how our investee companies are preparing their businesses to be successful in a lower-carbon economy.
We are also leveraging our climate knowledge to inform how we act as a business. AB is working to reduce carbon emissions in our operations, in part, by working to locate 85% of our employees in greener workspaces by 2025. Doing so will also encourage collaboration and foster engagement and wellness. As of March 2023, with our London office’s move to a greener building, we have met 60% of our goal, and our New York office move will follow in 2024.
At AllianceBernstein, we hope to build upon these efforts as we navigate the energy transition and the effects it will have on both our business and the issuers in which we invest. I’m looking forward to sharing more of what AB has in store. Happy NY Climate Week!"
See the original video here.
Learn more about AB’s approach to responsibility here
AllianceBernstein
AllianceBernstein
AllianceBernstein (AB) is a leading global investment management firm that offers diversified investment services to institutional investors, individuals, and private wealth clients in major world markets.
To be effective stewards of our clients’ assets, we strive to invest responsibly—assessing, engaging on and integrating material issues, including environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into most of our actively managed strategies (approximately 79% of AB’s actively managed assets under management as of December 31, 2024).
Our purpose—to pursue insight that unlocks opportunity—describes the ethos of our firm. Because we are an active investment manager, differentiated insights drive our ability to design innovative investment solutions and help our clients achieve their investment goals. We became a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) in 2011. This began our journey to formalize our approach to identifying responsible ways to unlock opportunities for our clients through integrating material ESG factors throughout most of our actively managed equity and fixed-income client accounts, funds and strategies. Material ESG factors are important elements in forming insights and in presenting potential risks and opportunities that can affect the performance of the companies and issuers that we invest in and the portfolios that we build. AB also engages issuers when it believes the engagement is in the best financial interest of its clients.
Our values illustrate the behaviors and actions that create our strong culture and enable us to meet our clients' needs. Each value inspires us to be better:
- Invest in One Another: At AB, there’s no “one size fits all” and no mold to break. We celebrate idiosyncrasy and make sure everyone’s voice is heard. We seek and include talented people with diverse skills, abilities and backgrounds, who expand our thinking. A mosaic of perspectives makes us stronger, helping us to nurture enduring relationships and build actionable solutions.
- Strive for Distinctive Knowledge: Intellectual curiosity is in our DNA. We embrace challenging problems and ask tough questions. We don’t settle for easy answers when we seek to understand the world around us—and that’s what makes us better investors and partners to our colleagues and clients. We are independent thinkers who go where the research and data take us. And knowing more isn’t the end of the journey, it’s the start of a deeper conversation.
- Speak with Courage and Conviction: Collegial debate yields conviction, so we challenge one another to think differently. Working together enables us to see all sides of an issue. We stand firmly behind our ideas, and we recognize that the world is dynamic. To keep pace with an ever changing world and industry, we constantly reassess our views and share them with intellectual honesty. Above all, we strive to seek and speak truth to our colleagues, clients and others as a trusted voice of reason.
- Act with Integrity—Always: Although our firm is comprised of multiple businesses, disciplines and individuals, we’re united by our commitment to be strong stewards for our people and our clients. Our fiduciary duty and an ethical mind-set are fundamental to the decisions we make.
As of December 31, 2024, AB had $792B in assets under management, $555B of which were ESG-integrated. Additional information about AB may be found on our website, www.alliancebernstein.com.
Learn more about AB’s approach to responsibility here.
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