Nuveen knows: why engagement matters

As global investors, we believe that responsible investing business practices lower risk, improve financial performance and drive positive social and environmental outcomes, providing enduring benefits to our clients and communities.

Nuveen implements its responsible investing commitment through activities underlying a set of core principles across the firm including: (1) engagement, (2) ESG integration and (3) driving positive impact across our portfolios. This foundational approach is applied to all asset classes and will continue to be assessed with evolving market trends and business needs.

To learn more about Nuveen’s key engagement activities across portfolios, including proxy voting, issuer dialogues, targeted and market initiatives and policy influence, read our latest insights below.

Aspirational requests become accountability requirements: 2019 proxy season preview

In recent years, heightened attention by institutional investors on companies’ responsible business practices has led to increased calls for greater accountability on a variety of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.

In the last two years, environmental and social issues collectively overtook traditional governance topics to become the primary drivers of more than half the shareholder proposals submitted to U.S. public companies for consideration during their annual meetings. Approximately 450 ESG shareholder proposals were voted in 2018. The overall average vote result on these proposals resumed a long-term upward trend with over 35% of proposals receiving at least 30% support, an increase from 28% in 2017.

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Policy statement on responsible investing: 7th edition

Since 1970, TIAA has been a leader in what we now call responsible investing, a constantly evolving discipline that incorporates the consideration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into investment research, due diligence, portfolio construction and ongoing monitoring.

Our participants and clients expect us to be good stewards of their investments as we help them achieve financial well-being at all stages of life. We seek to implement a set of principles that support well-functioning markets in order to preserve financial, social and environmental capital. We believe this philosophy and our approach contributes to long-term performance and helps reduce risk in our investments.

Specifically, we aim to promote good governance practices and monitor issues that may affect a company’s ability to create long-term, sustainable value. To ensure that investors have a broad range of information about the effects of their investments on key stakeholders, we encourage the substantive consideration of a broader stakeholder lens, including customers, employees, suppliers and the larger community.

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