The United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) was launched in April 2006 as a framework for institutional investors to integrate environmental, social and corporate governance issues into their investment portfolios. Together, signatories to the UNPRI control some billion of assets and the list of signatories continues to grow in response to a global consensus on the need for responsible investment to be integrated as part of mainstream investment.
As representatives of collective investment schemes, PNO Media and Hermes Equity Ownership Services (EOS) recognise that financial returns cannot be divorced from wider issues of a company's environmental, social and governance performance. It is for this reason that PNO and the BT Pension Scheme (of which Hermes is a wholly owned subsidiary) are signatories to the UNPRI.
BTPS is a founder member and Colin Melvin, chief executive of EOS, chaired the original investor group which developed the Principles. BTPS trustee Donald MacDonald is currently chair of the UNPRI.
