Wind Turbines in a Field

ESG Investing

Our mission is to help our clients meet their investment objectives and enable them to invest across a spectrum of returns, risk and ESG objectives.

With our rich heritage of combining investment excellence with a culture of accountability and social responsibility, ESG considerations are an integral component of the value proposition that we offer our clients.

Integration

Incorporating ESG issues into the investment process is underpinned by the belief that it will improve the financial resilience of the portfolio over the long-term by generating more stable, sustainable long-term returns. Performance in ESG-related areas can impact financial strength, the risk of ratings downgrades and valuations. For these reasons, we diligently analyze how material ESG issues can affect a company’s long-term outlook.

ESG considerations enhance our investment process by:

Deepening our fundamental research and analysis

  • Industry-focused issues and materiality
  • Regulatory landscape
  • ESG drivers of financial value

 

Broadening our relative value perspective

  • Peer-relative company ESG profile
  • Potential influences on market technicals

 

Strengthening portfolio construction

  • ESG policies supportive of the investment objective
  • Benchmarking of relevant metrics

 


Capabilities

Integration of material ESG considerations is core to our fundamental approach. Our investment in tools, people and processes allows us to offer client-directed customization and sustainability-focused portfolio solutions.

ESG 1

 


Memberships

We partner with like-minded market participants that advocate for improvements on shared ESG interests, including better disclosures, increased transparency and greater alignment with shareholder interests.

Climate-related industry groups

Other ESG-related organizations

  • Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals: Advances the field of corporate citizenship and provides valuable peer connections, education and resources for its community of purpose-driven companies
  • CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™ (CEO Action): Advances diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace; Voya was one of the original members in 2017 and joined the CEO Action for Racial Equity fellowship program when it launched
  • CEO Commission for Disability Employment: Seeks to raise awareness of the untapped potential of people with disabilities and work to ensure that people with disabilities achieve and maintain equal access to meaningful employment. Voya is a founding member since its launch in 2020
  • Council of Institutional Investors: Provides a voice for effective corporate governance, strong shareowner rights and sensible financial regulations that foster fair, vibrant capital markets. Voya IM became a signatory in 2019
  • Disability: IN: Empowers business to achieve disability inclusion and equality. Voya joined the organization in 2017
  • Diversity Best Practices: Provides research, resources, publications and strategies on how to implement, grow, measure and create programs designed to support DEI’s role as a business driver and a key element in a company’s culture. The Diversity Best Practices team includes an impressive group of researchers, practitioners, consultants and industry-focused diversity relationship managers. Leveraging the resources at Diversity Best Practices can help you achieve your team’s diversity and inclusion goals
  • Ethisphere Initiative for Equity and Social Justice: Focuses on developing a framework for companies to benchmark their initiatives, share metrics with stakeholders and close the opportunity gap. Voya joined the advisory council in 2020
  • Financial Services Roundtable for Supplier Diversity: Organization comprised of regional, national and global financial services companies with a formalized supplier diversity initiative that seeks to advance small and diverse-owned business inclusion within the financial services industry. Voya has been a member since 2022.
  • Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce: Organization that promotes and supports the domestic and international economic development of Hispanic businesses, and individuals, and to serve as a link between non-Hispanic entities and the Hispanic market. Voya has been a member since 2024.
  • Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): Provides best practice for impact reporting, with the mission to deliver the highest level of transparency for organizational impacts on the economy, the environment and people. Voya joined the GRI GOLD Community Standards Pioneers Program in 2016
  • Investment Company Institute (ICI) ESG Advisory Group: Seeks to encourage adherence to high ethical standards, promote public understanding, and otherwise advance the interests of funds, their shareholders, directors and advisers. Voya IM joined the ESG Advisory Group in 2020
  • Investment Stewardship Group (ISG): Seeks to establish a framework of basic investment stewardship and corporate governance standards for U.S., institutional investor and boardroom conduct. Voya IM has been a signatory since 2019
  • Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA) ESG working group: Focuses on ESG developments in the loan market, which includes ESG integration as well as the development and evolution of ESG loan products. Voya IM joined the working group in 2019
  • National LGBT Chamber of Commerce: Works to expand economic opportunities and advancement of the LGBTQ business community
  • National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC): Organization that certifies minority-owned businesses in the U.S. and creates connections between minority business enterprises (MBEs) and corporations, MBEs and the public sector, and MBEs and other MBEs, to help them benefit from each other, stoking entrepreneurship and growing wealth for these systematically excluded communities. Voya has been a member since 2014.
  • Out & Equal Workplace Advocates: Provides LGBTQ+ executive leadership development, comprehensive D&I training and consultation, and professional networking opportunities that build inclusive and welcoming work environments. Voya joined the organization in 2019
  • Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA): Provides views on U.S., and global policy and to create industry best practices. 
  • United Nations Global Compact (UNGC): UNGC is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption, as well as to support UN goals and issues embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Voya IM joined the UNGC in 2022
  • UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI): Aims to help investors integrate ESG considerations into investment decision making and supports sharing best practice in active ownership. Voya IM has been a signatory since 2017
  • Women’s Business Enterprise National Council: Organization that certifies women-owned businesses in the U.S. and is a leading advocate for women-owned businesses in corporate and government supply chains. Voya has been a member since 2023.

 

Disclosures

Environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) factors can impact the investment risk and return profiles of our investments. Investing based on ESG factors may cause a strategy to take risks or forego exposures available to strategies or products that do not incorporate ESG factors, which could negatively impact performance.  There is no assurance that investing based on ESG factors will be successful. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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