PRESS RELEASE
7 May 2019
SIMPLICITY AB JOINS THE BBFAW
GLOBAL INVESTOR COLLABORATION ON FARM ANIMAL WELFARE
Simplicity, the Swedish investment manager, has become the latest investor to join the BBFAW Global Investor Collaboration on Farm Animal Welfare.
The participating investors engage with the companies - including food producers, retailers and wholesalers, and restaurants and bars - covered by the Benchmark, commending leading and improving companies on their performance, and encouraging poorer performers to strengthen their approach, management systems and processes, and performance reporting on farm animal welfare.
The collaboration is now supported by 25 institutional investors representing a total of £2.4 trillion in assets under management. The participants are: Aberdeen Standard Investments, ACTIAM, Australian Ethical Investments, Aviva Investors, BMO Asset Management, BNP Paribas Investment Partners, Brunel Pension Partnership, Candriam, Castlefield Investment Partners LLP, the Central Finance Board of the Methodist Church, Coller Capital, EdenTree Investment Management, Epworth Investment Management, Karner Blue Capital, KBI Global Investors, NEI Investments, Rathbone Greenbank Investments, Robeco, Schroders, Simplicity AB, Sonen Capital, The Sustainability Group of Loring, Wolcott & Coolidge Trust, Trillium Asset Management, Triodos Bank and Walden Asset Management.
Anton Kristiansson, Fund Manager, Simplicity AB commented: “We want companies to conduct their business in line with international norms and best practices. A central element of our investment process is engagement with companies that do not meet these norms and practices. We will work with these companies to encourage them to improve and we commit to keeping them in our portfolios if our dialogue has enabled them to develop in a more sustainable direction.”
He added: “The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare is widely seen as providing the normative framework for company practice and performance on farm animal welfare. The BBFAW collaboration provides a practical mechanism for us to work with other investors to raise standards and to confirm that the Benchmark represents our collective expectation of company practice and performance on farm animal welfare.”
Dr Rory Sullivan, Expert Advisor to BBFAW commented: “The rapid growth in investor support for the BBFAW collaboration confirms that high standards of practice and performance on farm animal welfare are increasingly seen as a core expectation of companies in the food sector.”
ENDS
Today’s publication of the Business Benchmark on Animal Welfare (BBFAW) reveals that most global food giants (95%) acknowledge the importance of animal welfare and are addressing it with policy commitments and clearer governance.
25th April 2024We are delighted to announce we are holding an in-person launch event for the release of the 2023 Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW).
8th April 2024NN Group, a Dutch financial services company, with a strong presence in several European countries and Japan, has become a member of the BBFAW Global Investor Collaboration on Farm Animal Welfare. As a signatory to the Collaboration, NN Group will participate in an annual engagement to improve animal welfare management practices amongst BBFAW’s 150 global companies.
26th February 2024