Engagements in focus
BARRICK GOLD
During the second quarter, we held an initial engagement with Barrick, which focused on human rights at the North Mara mine. Since then, the company has released its 2023 Sustainability Report and held a management-led sustainability update to shareholders covering themes such as safety, community relations, the energy transition and ESG ratings. At the presentation, we asked several questions on biodiversity and the energy transition. This quarter’s engagement allowed us to further discuss with management nature and biodiversity, aspects of transparency and disclosure on greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) data and Barrick’s pathway to Net Zero.
NEWMONT
Over the last quarter, we had a meeting with Newmont’s Investor Relations team, the Group Head of Environment and the Group Head of Social Performance. The previous quarter, we had an introductory discussion about Newmont’s upcoming AGM, as well as employee health and safety. In the latest meeting, we discussed health and safety, the energy transition and the role of materiality assessments.
TESCO
Tesco has been a longstanding holding in a number of the Ruffer funds, and we have engaged with the company in the past. After conducting additional analysis through a Net Zero lens, we set up a meeting to discuss the energy transition, biodiversity and packaging. As this was an initial discussion, our focus was on gathering information and understanding how the company considers certain issues, with a view to using those insights to bolster our analysis and potentially drive action in subsequent meetings.
As a part of our commitment to the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative, we support the goal of Net Zero GHG emissions by 2050 or sooner, in line with global efforts to limit warming to 1.5◦C. We consider whether a company has set well-founded, long-term targets for Net Zero and assess whether its plan to achieve them is ambitious, credible and able to create value. We asked Tesco some of the questions on our alignment checklist before touching on the company’s approach to biodiversity and the challenges it faces in tackling plastic waste.