Contributing to a
Sustainable Future

Our commitment to sustainable investment practices has been a journey that first started when the firm was founded in 2003. Since then, we have continuously raised the bar to drive innovation and enhance our sustainable investment capabilities year after year.

As we manage assets on behalf of our clients, we aim to efficiently allocate capital to generate long-term positive outcomes that extend well beyond enhancing risk-adjusted returns. By advocating for sound governance and ethical business practices within the companies we invest in around the world, we contribute to creating a more sustainable future. We know that this, in turn, will enable economies and societies to thrive and prosper.

Committed to Responsible Investing

2002
Established Proxy Voting policy prior to the creation of Fiera Capital (previous firms)
2009
Became a signatory of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI)
2014
Became a member of the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance (CCGG)
2016
Subscribed to MSCI ESG Manager and became a member of the Responsible Investment Association (RIA)
2017
Updated Proxy Voting Policy and established Global RI Policy
2018
Established Global CSR Committee
2019
Launched new Global Proxy Voting Policy and introduced Responsible Investment Spectrum
2020
Launched first Impact Fund and became official supporter of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board
2021
Updated Proxy Voting Policy and became signatory of the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative
Vincent Beaulieu
We believe that to successfully integrate ESG factors within the investment decisions we make, our investment teams must be accountable for their respective ESG integration processes. As such, our new global Sustainable Investment team aims to provide them with additional resources and support for the years to come.
Vincent Beaulieu Head of Sustainable Investments

Accelerating Our Capabilities

Sustainable investing is core to our investment philosophy. We firmly believe that organizations that understand and successfully manage environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and related risks and opportunities create more resilient, higher quality businesses better positioned to deliver sustainable value over the long term.

Fiera Capital has been a signatory of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) for the past 13 years and is an official supporter of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) since 2020. We have also been actively promoting this standard within our firm, and it is now being used by a growing number of investment teams across the firm.

signatory of
the UNPRI
since
2009
official supporter
of the (SASB)
since
2020
Accelerating Our
Capabilities

In 2021, we continued to accelerate our capabilities on the sustainability front:

  • We created a dedicated global Sustainable Investments team led by Fiera Capital’s Head of Sustainable Investments. The Sustainability Investment team works closely with investment teams and distribution channels to improve and support ESG capabilities across the firm.
  • We launched the Horizons Active ESG Corporate Bond ETF, a new active ESG Bond ETF that will invest in North American corporate bonds that have gone through a fundamental credit research process. We also launched a sustainable Canadian Equity ETB in partnership with National Bank of Canada.
  • Our Real Estate team has proudly led the way in the industry with 94% of our Canadian real estate portfolio achieving green building certification and six of our funds having reached a “Green Star” score from the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB).
  • Fiera Infrastructure achieved 2021 GRESB results well above its peer group average as well as its previous year scores, with the EagleCrest Infrastructure Canada Fund benefiting from a 32% increase in score and the EagleCrest Infrastructure SCSp Fund recording a 19% increase.
  • As a firm, we successfully complied with the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), a new set of European Union rules aiming to make sustainability profiles more transparent and comparable for funds sold throughout Europe. We are proud to say that all our Irish UCITS funds have been classified as Article 8 under the SFDR, with binding environmental and social criteria integrated as standard.
  • We continue to look at recommendations from the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) to further our understanding of our own long-term climate-related risks and opportunities. We worked with a technology vendor to use climate science, data science, geospatial engineering and catastrophe modelling to better measure and respond to financial risks related to climate change issues for U.S. municipal issuers.
  • We developed and published our first comprehensive Responsible Investment Report, which outlines Fiera Capital’s sustainable investing actions and provides a framework to implement ongoing strategies and to consider new sustainability initiatives over the longer term.

Read our 2020 Responsible
Investment Report

Download PDF

Supporting the Decarbonization of the Global Economy

We monitor environmental performance, support the transition to a lower carbon economy and invest in climate change mitigation and resilience. As a global asset management firm, we closely analyze the risks posed by climate change when making investment decisions, and we strongly believe this will contribute to our firm’s success and to the sustainability of our clients’ investments.

In August 2021, we joined the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative which brings together an international group of asset managers committed to playing a more active role in battling climate change. We are dedicated to working proactively towards the goal of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner, and to supporting broader efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. 

We encourage enhanced disclosure on climate change-related risks in our portfolio companies and we are ourselves committed to doing the same. We are constantly working on ways to get better emissions data and coverage to help fully understand the underlying climate-related risks within our portfolio.