Artisan Partners

In terms of senior leadership accountability, the responsibility for sustainability issues within Artisan Partners lies with the nominating and corporate governance committee of the board of directors. The asset manager has a sustainability report where it describes its environmental, social and governance (ESG) engagement with its investees and how it has been applied in practice. Furthermore, the ESG engagement includes an escalation criteria framework of two-stage assessment and proxy voting. To conclude, Artisan Partners discloses examples of successful engagements with companies.

No leading practices were identified for Artisan Partners in the respecting planetary boundaries measurement area.

Artisan Partners discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. Moreover, the asset manager has a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers to raise human rights complaints or concerns. Further, Artisan Partners has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption.

In terms of its approach to senior leadership accountability, there is no evidence that Artisan Partners links the remuneration of its executive or management teams to sustainability performance criteria. The asset manager can improve its performance on gender equality by disclosing a commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment as well as how it addresses any gender pay gaps. In terms of female representation in leadership positions, it also has an opportunity to reach at least 40% female representation on the board of directors and in senior leadership positions. Further, Artisan Partners could publish case studies describing where it has engaged unsuccessfully with investees on sustainability themes and impact topics.

Artisan Partners can improve its performance by disclosing a target to reach net-zero financed emissions by 2050 as well as the key sectors and companies it has identified as priorities to engage with on climate change, specifically on the alignment with the Paris Agreement. Moreover, the asset manager has an opportunity to disclose its financing activities devoted to climate solutions or regenerative solutions and to commit to minimising its negative impacts on biodiversity.

Artisan Partners could provide evidence of publicly available policy statements committing it to respect human rights, the ILO core labour rights, and the health and safety of workers. Further, it could describe the process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in its activities. Artisan Partner discloses the ages of its executive and board of directors but has an opportunity to disclose this information for each employee category. To provide transparency on financial inclusivity, it could publish the amount of finance directed towards, women-owned businesses, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), or low-income developing countries. To conclude, Artisan Partners has a channel mechanism to report grievances. However, it is not clear if it is available to all the external stakeholders to raise human rights complaints or concerns.