companies under engagement
Sustainable investing
Being invested means being engaged. Through stewardship – engagement and voting – we work on behalf of our clients to strengthen sustainability and governance at companies and address systemic risks such as climate with sovereign issuers.
Numbering the influence
Source: Robeco, Stewardship Report 2023
*The assets-under-engagement/voting figures we shown below are based on Robeco’s equity and credit portfolios for which we conduct engagements and voting. Robeco also votes and engages with clients whose portfolios are run by other asset managers; we call these ‘overlay clients’. In 2023, we had 11 overlay clients, representing roughly AUD 480 billion in assets.
- 232AUD
- 123AUD
countries under engagement
- 6,374
shareholder meetings voted
- 55%
of engagement cases closed successfully
- 54%
meetings with > 1 vote against management
- 67,253
proposals we voted on
Engagement
We engage in structured dialogue with companies to achieve specific, pre-determined improvements in ESG factors. These in-depth engagements typically span up to three years and focus on critical themes such as climate, nature and human rights.
Voting
As active owners, we regularly exercise our voting rights at shareholder meetings on key issues. This includes routine matters such as accounts and board appointments, as well as resolutions on executive remuneration (Say on Pay) and decarbonization strategies (Say on Climate).
Exclusions
When a company’s products or conduct fall below acceptable standards – such as involvement in controversial weapons or tobacco – we may exclude it from our investment universe. As exclusion limits our ability to influence through engagement, we consider it a measure of last resort.
Reporting on Active Ownership
Robeco reports on its Active Ownership activities every quarter as part of standard disclosure. These include regularly updated statistics on engagement, voting, and wider issues under scrutiny by the Active Ownership team.
We also create an annual Stewardship Report bringing all of this together, along with an annual Sustainable Investing Integrated Report covering the wider issues of sustainability including Robeco’s own performance in this area. These are available here.
Collaboration is key
Systemic challenges like climate change are too vast for any single investor to solve alone. To maximize our collective reach, we collaborate with leading global groups, including:
Climate Action 100+ (CA100)
International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN)
Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC).
We also follow international standards laid down by the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), the UN Global Compact, and the Paris Agreement. A full list of our collaborations including more local sustainability networks is available here.
Robeco ranks number one in ShareAction Responsible Investment report
Robeco has again been ranked number one in the 2025 ShareAction Responsible Investment Benchmark report. This is the third time in a row Robeco has been ranked first place. ShareAction has been producing research on asset managers and asset owners since 2007. The primary aim of this work is to create a valuable public resource that allows diverse stakeholders to see how effective the largest institutional investors and asset managers are when it comes to responsible investment.
