BlackRock

In terms of senior leadership accountability, BlackRock assigns the responsibility for sustainability issues within the financial institution to the Board of Directors and links the remuneration of its executive team to sustainability performance criteria. It describes its approach to engagement on sustainability themes and impact topics with its investees, including success criteria and escalation points. Further, BlackRock publishes a stewardship report providing an overview of its engagement activity over the assessment period and examples of successful and unsuccessful engagement with its investees. It discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member including sustainability- and non-sustainability-related organisations as well as positions it takes in its lobbying and political engagement activities on sustainability themes. 

As a member of the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative, BlackRock has set a target of net-zero financed emissions by 2050. It discloses the companies it has identified as priorities to engage with on climate change, including the topic of alignment with the Paris Agreement. As a member of Climate Action 100+, the financial institution discloses that it collectively engages with its clients on the topic of climate change. Further, the asset manager discloses GHG emissions associated with its assets under management (AUM) and discloses the underlying data quality. BlackRock also provides evidence that nature- and biodiversity-related impacts are among its engagement topics with investees and that it collectively engages with its investees through Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return (FAIRR) initiative. 

BlackRock provides a case study describing how it has acted on a salient human rights risk issue. It also discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. Further, it discloses the amount invested with minority- and/or women-owned managers. The asset manager has a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers, external individuals and communities to raise human rights complaints or concerns. Additionally, it has a publicly available policy statement which shows it is committed to respecting the health and safety of workers. BlackRock has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and takes steps to identify and address it.

BlackRock has an opportunity to link the remuneration of its management team to sustainability performance criteria. In terms of female representation in leadership positions, women are underrepresented on the board of directors where only 6 out of 17 board members are women. The asset manager also has an opportunity to reach at least 40% female representation in senior leadership positions. BlackRock could further disclose the ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. 

BlackRock has an opportunity to disclose interim absolute emissions reduction targets across its AUM, such as a 45% reduction in financed emissions by 2030. While the asset manager encourages its investees to set a 1.5°C-aligned strategy, it has an opportunity to make this a requirement. BlackRock could also disclose the amount of its financing activities devoted to climate solutions. It is also committed to minimising its negative impacts on nature and biodiversity in its stewardship activities and actively managed strategies but could extent the commitment across all of its AUM. No evidence was found regarding the BlackRock’s approach to fossil fuels that spans across the fossil fuel value chain and assets under management, such as the amount or share of finance it directs towards fuels, or its stance on financing companies with new fossil fuel projects. 

BlackRock could publish a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights laid out in the UNGPs and the ILO declaration on fundamental rights at work. It also has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its AUM. Further, the asset manager could disclose the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group. To provide transparency on financial inclusivity, BlackRock could disclose the amount of investments directed towards low-income developing countries.