perspectives
Stay informed with the latest updates, expert commentary, and in-depth analysis from our team. Our Perspectives page brings you thought leadership on responsible investment, emerging trends, and the key issues shaping the financial landscape. Whether it’s ethical investment in a changing world, the impact of AI, or navigating global uncertainties, we provide perspectives that matter.
Safeguarding Children: Investor Tools for Empowering Engagement
Children are often overlooked in responsible investment strategies, despite being a key audience for many businesses. This article explores how investors can incorporate children’s welfare into their engagement efforts by using established frameworks like the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and key industry benchmarks.
From tackling malnutrition and improving education access to ensuring digital safety and ethical supply chains, these tools help investors drive meaningful change. As part of a wider series, this piece sets the stage for deeper discussions on how businesses impact children’s lives—and what investors can do about it.
Children: The Forgotten Constituency in Investment Stewardship
Despite growing focus on ESG issues like climate change and human rights, children remain largely ignored in investment stewardship. They lack financial agency and lobbying power, yet businesses significantly impact them—whether through exploitative marketing in sectors like food, alcohol, and technology or through child labor in global supply chains. Epworth Investment Management, continuing its ethical investment approach, will explore these issues in a 2025 article series, building on its parent organization’s 2009 advocacy for children’s rights in investment policies.
Marking the 35th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Epworth aims to push for stronger investor engagement on child-related concerns. The upcoming IPO of Shein, facing allegations of child labor, underscores the urgency of addressing children’s rights in investment decisions. Future articles will examine how global frameworks like the UN Convention and Sustainable Development Goals can guide responsible investment practices.
GLP-1 Drugs: A Double-Edged Sword in the Fight Against Obesity
Epworth’s latest research in the pharmaceutical sector explores the rise of GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, as a promising tool for weight management.
These medications offer significant health benefits, including reduced obesity-related illnesses and improved well-being, aligning with our ethical investment focus on ‘Health & Wellbeing.’
However, concerns remain. High costs limit accessibility for lower-income communities, and the growing demand has led to shortages for diabetes patients. Additionally, the societal implications - ranging from dependency on medication to shifts in body image perceptions - warrant careful consideration.
Epworth Invests in Gold: "The Gold, the bad and the ugly"
Epworth has long avoided investing in gold due to its ethical challenges, including environmental damage from mining, high carbon emissions, and exploitative labor practices. Despite these concerns, gold remains a strong portfolio diversifier, particularly during financial and geopolitical instability, due to its low correlation with other assets.
Following extensive research, Epworth has approved an investment in gold reserves held by the UK’s Royal Mint (RM), which prioritizes sustainability. RM recycles gold waste from coin production, significantly reducing its carbon footprint, and has committed to net-zero targets. Epworth’s fund manager, Matthew Jones, visited RM to assess its practices firsthand, including its efforts to align suppliers with sustainable sourcing policies. Moving forward, Epworth will continue engaging with RM to push for broader improvements in the precious metals industry.
Barclays Shareholder Resolution/Co-filing, 2023-2024
Epworth, alongside other institutional investors coordinated by ShareAction, co-filed a shareholder resolution against Barclays in December 2023, urging the bank to strengthen its climate policies. Barclays has been a major financier of fossil fuel expansion, and this resolution aimed to push for stricter lending limits and measurable climate targets. Recognizing the opportunity to influence Barclays’ new climate policy, the resolution sought to drive long-term change by ensuring greater accountability in its financing practices.
As a result of this engagement, Barclays introduced new climate commitments, including ending asset financing for new oil and gas projects, ceasing direct funding for expansionist energy projects, and restricting financing to new clients heavily invested in fossil fuel expansion. Additionally, from 2025, all energy clients must have a transition plan, with further restrictions from 2026 for those failing to meet emissions and methane reduction targets aligned with international climate initiatives.
HSBC Engagement: ITV Interview and Feature, January - February 2024
Andrew Harper was interviewed by ITV’s Business and Economics Editor, Joel Hills, in collaboration with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Featured nationwide on ITV News at 10 on January 19, 2024, the investigation exposed HSBC’s continued financing of expansionist oil and gas projects despite its climate commitments. The bank was found to be using alternative capital-raising methods, such as facilitating share sales, to bypass accountability. Following further scrutiny, the Financial Times confirmed in February 2024 that HSBC will now include off-balance sheet emissions in its annual report—an outcome that Epworth believes was directly influenced by this media pressure.
Epworth also facilitated a high-level dialogue between Cardinal Vincent Nichols and HSBC’s leadership, discussing the bank’s stance on democratic rights in Hong Kong, its response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and its pledge to stop financing new oil and gas projects. Additionally, Epworth previously featured in a 2021 investigative report that alleged HSBC was attempting to weaken climate action within the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, a story nominated for ESG Story of the Year.
