This article was last updated on 26/07/2023
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 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)? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing One of the world’s leading manufacturers of semiconductors. Its products are essential components in high-performance computers, mobile phones, automotive and digital consumer electronics. Its technology is used to enable safer and more energy-efficient products in communication, high-speed computing, medicine, education, climate technology, financial technology and more. |
Efficiency, Electrification, Digitization | Goal 4: Quality Education Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| VERTEX researches and develops pharmaceutical and medical products. Its medicines aim to treat diseases including sickle cell and cystic fibrosis. Its research and development continue to focus on cell and genetic therapies. It produced the first medicine to target the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis. | Public health | Goal 3: Good health and wellbeing | |
| Eli Lilly is an American pharmaceutical company using biotechnology, chemistry and genetic medicine to solve some of the world’s most significant health challenges. Eli Lilly’s currently developing medicines in areas including, neurodegeneration such as Alzheimer’s, pain, cancer, immunology, diabetes and obesity. | Public health | Goal 3: Good health and wellbeing | |
| Intuit specialises in financial software with products that help people better understand their credit score, file taxes and more, believing everyone should have the opportunity to prosper. Its software is used by small businesses and the self-employed. It aims for its products to help its customers save time and money. It also runs job readiness programs, helping students develop their finance and career skills. | Financial & Digital Inclusion | Goal 1: No poverty Goal 10: Reduced inequalities |
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| ASML HOLDING NV is a Dutch manufacturer of semiconductors. The company believe technology can be a force for good benefiting society broadly as it pushes forward innovations in microchip production. For example, developing chips small enough to fit into portable pen readers which can scan text on a page and read it out loud. Advanced processors designed by ASML have played an important role in life support devices and robotic surgery assistants. | Efficiency, Electrification, Digitization | Goal 9: Industry innovation and infrastructure | |
| 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 | |
| Trane Tecnhnologies Trane Technologies focuses on the development of heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration systems. It seeks to continually innovate more efficient and environmentally friendly systems to transport refrigerated food, medicines and other perishable items around the world. |
Efficiency, Electrification, Digitization | Goal 9: Industry innovation and infrastructure | |
| Ecolab Inc Ecolab offers water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions. It seeks to make the world a cleaner, safer and healthier place whilst protecting people and the resources vital for life. In the healthcare industry, for example, its solutions include the Hand Hygiene Compliance Monitoring System, an electronic hand hygiene reminder system designed to help hospitals achieve the highest level of sustained hand hygiene compliance. |
Pollution Remediation & Prevention | Goal 3: Good health and wellbeing | |
| 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 |
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| Stryker Corp Stryker is one of the world’s leading medical technology companies. It develops innovative products and services in areas such as neurotechnology, and orthopaedics to improve patient and healthcare outcomes. Alongside medical equipment, it provides training and education to healthcare professionals with courses focussing on neurosurgical techniques and spine surgery procedures. |
Public Health | Goal 3: Good health and wellbeing | |
| 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 | |
| Xylem Inc Xylem develops innovative water solutions using smart technology. It produces environmental monitoring tools to assess the quality of water supplies including wastewater and drinking water. Within the life sciences, its clinical and diagnostic tools measure glucose levels and plasma, for example, where the results provide healthcare professionals with information on metabolism, toxic agents and more. |
Sustainable Food and Water | Goal 3: Good health and wellbeing | |
| ABB Ltd ABB is a pioneer in robotics, machine automation and digital services. It develops electrification and automation solutions, which it sees as enabling a more sustainable and resource-efficient future. Its innovations include technology which increases energy efficiency. It envisions a zero-emission ‘mobility future’, one where electrification solutions such as EV chargers for cars will play a big role in reducing CO2 emissions. |
Efficiency, Electrification, Digitization | Goal 4: Affordable and clean energy Goal 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure |
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| 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 | |
| Recruit Holdings Ltd Recruit Holdings is a global technology company aiming to simplify the hiring process for businesses. It aims to deliver long-term sustainable growth and positive social impact. It believes in developing equitable and inclusive job matching whilst reducing the time it takes job seekers to get hired by half by 2030. It’s also committed to supporting job seekers from vulnerable and marginalised communities who can’t be helped through job matching alone. |
Education and Skilling | Goal 5: Gender Equality Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth |
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| Ooredoo Ooredoo is a telecommunications company providing mobile and wireless services among others, however, it offers a wide variety of diverse initiatives. It believes everyone has the right to access the internet. Ooredoo has joined with other companies as part of research which ultimately aims to provide mobile/internet access to millions of women. Ooredoo’s solutions include Mobile Connect to help customers in Indonesia protect their identity and its Mobile Health Clinics provide life-saving healthcare services to underserved communities |
Financial and Digital Inclusion | Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth Goal 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure |
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| Check Point Check Point Software Technologies is a leading provider of cyber security solutions. Its commitment is to make the world a safer and more secure place by helping companies and governments assess and mitigate evolving security threats. Its products and services ultimately help make the digital world more secure, safeguarding organisations with an industry-leading 99.8% prevention rate. |
Safety and Security | Goal 4: Quality Education Goal 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure |
*The above table represents a snapshot of the fund’s equity holdings on 21 May 2024. 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
