Vanguard Group

Vanguard has an engagement policy where it describes its engagement approach on sustainability themes and impact topics with investees. It publishes case studies describing where it has engaged successfully with investees on sustainability themes and impact topics.  

As a signatory to the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative, Vanguard has set a target of net-zero financed emissions by 2050. 

Vanguard discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by gender, race and ethnicity.

In terms of its approach to senior leadership accountability, Vanguard has an opportunity to assign responsibility for sustainability to the group’s highest governing body and link the remuneration of its executive and management teams to sustainability performance criteria. It has an opportunity to make a public commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment and disclose how it addresses any gender pay gaps. Furthermore, women are underrepresented on the board of directors where only three out of 11 board members are women. Vanguard has an opportunity to include clear frameworks with success criteria and escalation points in its engagement policy on sustainability and impact topics. 

Vanguard could disclose interim emissions reduction targets at the group level, such as a 45% reduction in financed emissions by 2030. It has an opportunity to disclose the key sectors and companies it has identified as priorities to engage with on climate change, specifically on the alignment with the Paris Agreement. Furthermore, the asset manager could disclose the amount of its investment devoted to climate solutions. Regarding nature and biodiversity, no evidence was found that the financial institution is committed to minimising its negative impacts or financing regenerative solutions. 

There is no evidence that Vanguard has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights. It has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially its investment activities. It also has an opportunity to establish a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers, external individuals and communities to raise human rights complaints or concerns. To provide transparency on financial inclusivity, the asset manager has an opportunity to disclose the amount of investment directed towards low-income developing countries.