This article was last updated on 24/07/2023
The companies included in our Impact Plan are striving to make a real-world difference for both society and the planet across a broad range of areas. Those areas represent a variety of impact themes from financial inclusion, affordable housing and education to green energy and sustainable food and water.
To give you a better sense of the types of companies the Impact Plan invests in, we’ve created an overview of the plan’s 20 largest company holdings, so you can see what they do and how they’re making a difference alongside the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) each company’s helping to advance.
| Company name and description | Impact theme | Advancing which UN SDG(s)? |
|---|---|---|
| Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Bank Rakyat Indonesia’s a pioneer of microfinance and one of the largest providers of microloans and financial services to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and low-income households in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Millions of people in the region rely on BRI to access essential financial services, such as savings accounts and insurance products, enabling them to grow their businesses, serve their local communities and provide for themselves and their families. |
Financial and Digital Inclusion | Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth Goal 10: Reduced inequalities |
| RELX plc RELX’s a UK-based provider of information-based analytics and decision tools. RELX aims to ultimately benefit society by providing its customers with technology that improves decision-making, gets better results and becomes more productive. The positive impacts range from helping doctors and nurses improve patients’ lives and reducing hundreds of millions of human-based fraud attacks to increasing financial inclusion by serving tens of millions of disadvantaged people without credit scores and helping to find missing children. |
Education and Skilling | Goal 4: Quality education Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals |
| Schneider Electric Schneider Electric believes that access to energy and digital tools and services is a basic human right. As a global specialist in energy management and digital automation, Schneider Electric aims to increase access to energy, resource efficiency, grid resiliency, electrification, and circularity for customers. Its products are used in smart factories and distribution centres, helping to make industries of the future eco-efficient, agile and resilient through automation. |
Efficiency, Electrification, Digitisation | Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy Goal 9: Industry innovation and infrastructure Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production |
| Koninklijke DSM N.V. Koninklijke DSM N.V’s a Dutch health and nutrition company applying bioscience to improve the health of people, animals and the planet. It does this by improving nutrition, personal care and sustainable materials across an array of business areas. These include food, dietary supplements, animal feed, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, automotive, electronics, life protection, alternative energy and bio-based materials. |
Sustainable Food and Water | Goal 2: Zero hunger Goal 3: Good health and well-being Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production |
| Royalty Pharma Plc Royalty Pharma PLC provides financing for drug discovery in the biopharmaceutical industry. Royalty Pharma funds research across various diseases helping to further develop innovative health solutions, and in turn, enabling pharmaceutical companies to access an additional method of financing required for medical progress. |
Public health | Goal 3: Good health and wellbeing |
| Boston Scientific Corp Boston Scientific Corp works to improve the health of patients around the world through innovative medical solutions. As a leading manufacturer of medical devices, it focuses on medical procedures including cardiovascular and endoscopy. Boston Scientific Corp’s an innovator in developing new tools that improve patient outcomes, and address unmet patient needs whilst helping to reduce the cost of healthcare. |
Public health | Goal 3: Good health and wellbeing |
| EDP Renovaveis EDP Renovaveis is a global leader in the renewable energy sector and the fourth largest producer worldwide. It focuses on the planning, construction, operation and maintenance of green energy power plants as well as developing onshore wind and solar power. EDP adopts an entire environmental management life cycle to ensure it uses sustainable practices, including the materials it sources and the construction and installation of its facilities on the environment and local communities throughout the world. |
Green energy | Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy Goal 13: Climate action |
| Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc Thermo Fisher Scientific develops critical medical tools and supplies for life sciences, innovative biopharma and medical testing. It aims to speed up medical research, for example, in allergies and autoimmune diseases, provide more accurate patient diagnostics as well as enhance the effectiveness of therapies. Thermo Fisher Scientific also works with laboratories to improve their workflows, making them more efficient in their medical research. |
Public health | Goal 3: Good health and wellbeing |
| Ørsted Ørsted’s a Danish renewable energy company developing offshore and onshore wind farms, renewable hydrogen and waste-to-energy solutions. It’s one of the market leaders in offshore wind development and has the largest number of operating wind farms worldwide. |
Green energy | Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy Goal 13: Climate action |
| Danaher Corp Danaher provides innovative diagnostics tools and leading medical equipment for life sciences and medical testing that leads to better healthcare predictions. Danaher also looks to advance scientific research to better understand the cause of diseases to develop new life-saving treatments. As a leader in scalable, cost-effective diagnostics, Danaher provides infrastructure for the growth in prominence of the Biologic and Cell and Gene Therapy industry. |
Public health | Goal 3: Good health and wellbeing Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation |
| Halma PLC Halma’s a global group of around 45 life-saving focussed technology companies that work across several areas. Halma produces safety equipment to protect people and the places they work. It also provides technologies that monitor and protect the environment, such as its water testing equipment and produces medical technologies that enhance the quality of life for patients. Halma acquires innovative companies whose technological products and services deliver strong growth and positive impact globally. |
Safety and Security | Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities |
| APTIV PLC APTV’s one of the largest vehicle technology suppliers to automobile manufacturers. Its mission is to enable a safer, greener and more connected future of mobility. It focuses on high-quality connectors, electrical centres, safety solutions, and vehicle automation. APTIV’s at the forefront of vehicle safety technology and electrification. Its Smart Vehicle Architecture (SVA) solves a range of challenges for automobile manufacturers as they accelerate the introduction of electric vehicles whilst minimising the environmental impact of a vehicle’s total lifecycle. |
Safety and Security | Goal 3: Good health and wellbeing Goal 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure |
| Autodesk Inc Autodesk’s a global leader in 3D design, engineering, software and services, through its powerful technology products and services. It produces software for students’ learning design and is a low-cost solution for emerging countries to design housing and infrastructure. The Autodesk software achieves improved resiliency, reduced waste and energy savings during construction. Nearly 50% of global waste volume comes from the construction and disposal of infrastructure. Much of this waste can be eliminated through better design and process management software. Optimised designs allow for energy savings of up to 50% for the building industry. |
Pollution Remediation and Prevention | Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy Goal 9: Industry innovation and infrastructure Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities |
| Brookfiled Renewable Partners Brookfield Renewable Partners is a green energy company that owns and operates renewable energy assets worldwide. It’s one of the world’s largest investors in renewable power and climate transition assets including, wind, solar, hydro and biomass whilst helping to accelerate the global transition to net zero. |
Green Energy | Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy Goal 13: Climate action |
| North West company Inc North West Company’s a food retailer operating in underserved rural communities in Canada, Alaska, the South Pacific and the Caribbean. It also sells family apparel, housewares, appliances, and outdoor products, and offers money transfers. North West’s focus is to provide a reliable place to get low-cost groceries in parts of the world that are underserved and facing the rising cost of living crisis and particularly in providing services to indigenous customers. |
Sustainable Food and Water | Goal 2: Zero hunger |
| Quanta Services Inc Quanta’s a leading company in providing solutions in the electric power sector, underground utility and communications industries. Quanta develops infrastructure whilst modernising and retrofitting the grid to make it more sustainable, reliable, and efficient in helping to decarbonise the power grid. |
Efficiency, Electrification, Digitization | Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy Goal 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure |
| Trimble Inc Trimble provide advanced location-based software solutions for agriculture and construction efficiency. It integrates expertise in positioning systems technologies such as GPS and laser with software, wireless communications, and services. The GPS software and sensors are used to improve the efficiency and sustainability of agriculture and construction. Its products help to improve productivity per harvest and reduce herbicide use. |
Sustainable Food and Water | Goal 2: Zero hunger Goal 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure |
| Vestas Wind Systems Vestas is a Danish global leader in sustainable energy solutions. As a manufacturer and servicer of wind turbines it designs, manufactures, instals and provides maintenance to the turbines. The maintenance prolongs the life of each turbine helping to reduce the carbon intensity from manufacturing new turbines. Its sustainable energy solutions have prevented over 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere. |
Green Energy | Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy Goal 13: Climate action |
| Zoetis Inc Zoetis is the world’s leading animal health company, viewing animal health as essential to public health and people’s wellbeing. Zoetis use cutting-edge technology to discover, develop and manufacture medicines, vaccines and diagnostic equipment for pets, fish and livestock animals. Zoetis focuses on products that treat diseases that can often be life-threatening for animals. |
Sustainable Food and Water | Goal 2: Zero hunger Goal 3: Good health and wellbeing |
| Jack Henry and Associates Inc Jack Henry’s a technology solutions and payment processing provider for credit unions and community and regional financial institutions in the US. Its purpose is to reduce the barriers to financial health by empowering people and communities to gain financial freedom to move forward. It creates more accessibility for smaller financial institutions and provides technological innovations to promote the productivity of the financial service industry. |
Financial and Digital Inclusion | Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth |
*The above table represents a snapshot of the fund’s equity holdings at launch on 15 February 2023. Holdings can change at any time and are provided for informational purposes only and shouldn’t be deemed as a recommendation to buy or sell the securities mentioned or securities in the industries in which they are placed.
Risk warning
As always with investments, your capital is at risk. The value of your investment can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invest. This information should not be regarded as financial advice
