LGIM continues to put pressure on companies failing to tackle social issues like inequality and diversity

Across Legal & General and LGIM, we believe in diversity of thought in business – the bringing together of people of different ages, experiences, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and social and economic backgrounds – is a crucial step towards building a better economy and society.

More diverse organisations tend to make better strategic decisions, show superior growth and innovation, and exhibit lower risk.

Ethnic and gender diversity in the workplace

Healthcare

In 2021 we took several actions to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which we believe could be the next big threat to global health.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

The term ‘antimicrobial resistance’ sums up the damaging effect of bacteria increasing its resistance to antibiotics and making infections harder to treat and contain.

As a global investor, LGIM is mindful of the widespread effects that AMR may have across numerous sectors from healthcare and pharmaceuticals, to travel and leisure. LGIM believes the scale of action across both the public and private sectors remains insufficient to adequately prevent potential economic and human impacts.

In response

In response to the growing issue of AMR, in 2022 LGIM:

  • used its votes to push for progress on antimicrobial resistance by supporting three shareholder proposals on this issue
  • wrote to 11 international organisations asking them to focus on four key areas to push for market-wide improvement. This followed on from LGIM’s previous corporate engagement with water utility companies, given the crucial role of the water sector in AMR
  • wrote to policymakers in the lead up to COP27 in November 2022, asking them to consider the clear link between climate change, infectious diseases and AMR and to ensure that policy is designed to tackle each in an integrated way
  • contributed to the Citi GPS publication on Antimicrobial Resistance: The Silent Pandemic

 

Other areas

LGIM’s activities on health included working to support better quality nutrition:

  • LGIM engaged with 12 food and beverage manufacturers, in collaboration with ShareAction and other investors, to improve transparency on their health and nutritional strategies
  • LGIM also continued its collaborative engagement under the auspices of the Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI), to engage with listed companies within their index on adopting accountability tools designed to drive and support food market transformation that support healthier diets

The Living Wage

If not already doing so, LGIM asks the companies in which it invests to help reduce global poverty by paying at least the living wage, or the real living wage for UK-based employees. LGIM also urges them to ensure that their direct suppliers do the same. As part of this, LGIM gave companies an ultimatum to disclose their living wage strategy by 2025.

Over the course of 2022, LGIM placed just over 100 shareholder votes on social and people-related matters, including labour rights, inequality and discrimination.

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Legal & General's inclusion policy

Legal & General’s own policy on inclusion means we recruit people based on merit regardless of sexuality, gender preference, physical ability, age, ethnic or social background.

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Taking action

Find out how we've influenced companies to achieve better environmental, social and governance outcomes.

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Environment

The action we are taking to protect the wellbeing of our planet.

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Governance

How we ensure companies are well run.

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Most of the activity described on this site is carried out by Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), a division of Legal & General. LGIM manages your funds and makes the day-to-day investment decisions.

All our funds are managed by professional fund managers but some of the funds available to you are not managed by Legal & General. External fund managers may take a different approach to responsible investing.

Throughout this site, we use companies as examples of the action we take. The issues highlighted are not exclusive to them.

Reference to a particular security is on a historic basis and does not mean that the security is currently held or will be held within an LGIM portfolio. The information on this site does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any security.