Wespath’s unwavering commitment to sustainable investing is evident throughout the new Sustainable Investment Report, which was released today. The report details the ways in which Wespath is evolving to both meet the needs of its investors and address sustainably-related risks in its investments.
The report shares highlights from Wespath’s work on affordable housing, climate change, human rights and corporate governance over the past two years. In addition, the report explains how Wespath incorporates sustainable investment considerations into its investment process and asset manager selection.
All the work covered in the report demonstrates how Wespath seeks to use sustainable investment activities to help its participants, plan sponsors and institutional investors achieve their long-term financial objectives while investing in alignment with our shared values.
A few highlights in the report include:
- Wespath’s Positive Social Purpose (PSP) Lending Program invested in several affordable housing properties, including a building in which over half of the apartments are designated for individuals served by a local not-for-profit health services agency.
- Employing a rigorous investment process, Wespath launched two new funds for institutional investors with a preference for a heightened focus on climate change and human rights.
- After several years of engagement by Wespath and other investors, Chevron joined the Oil & Gas Methane Partnership 2.0, the world’s premier program to measure, report and mitigate methane emissions.
- Wespath set a goal of reducing the emissions intensity of its investment funds by 35% by 2025 as part of its membership in the United Nations-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance—and it more than achieved that, seeing a 48% drop in emissions intensity by December 31, 2024.
- One of Wespath’s asset managers changed its proxy voting policy regarding shareholder proposals that seek information about a company’s diversity after an engagement by Wespath and a fellow investor.
- Wespath is at the forefront of assessing how human rights risks can adversely affect investment portfolios—and working hard to mitigate the most problematic risks among its investments.
About Wespath
Wespath is a nonprofit agency of The United Methodist Church. In accordance with its fiduciary duties, Wespath administers benefit plans and, together with its subsidiaries, including Wespath Institutional Investments LLC (WII), invests nearly $26 billion in assets on behalf of over 100,000 participants and over 150 nonprofit organizations (as of December 31, 2024). Wespath administers one of the largest faith-based pension funds in the world.
Wespath implements the sustainable investment strategies for investment funds made available through its subsidiaries. This Sustainable Investment Report does not constitute an offer to sell securities. An offer for the sale of interests in the P Series funds and the I Series funds will only be made through the Investment Funds Description – P Series and Investment Funds Description – I Series, respectively. For additional information about Wespath, please follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.
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Contact:
Ryan McQueeney
Wespath
(847) 866 4653
[email protected]
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RNS or Religion News Foundation.