August 3, 2022

Victoria, BC – Today, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) published our 2021 ESG Annual Report, an in-depth look at how we capture opportunities and manage risks associated with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters on behalf of our clients. The report is supported by a supplementary document that provides additional case studies.

“Addressing climate change and ESG issues is not only a source of potential investment opportunities, it also allows us to manage long-term financial risks,” said Gordon J. Fyfe, chief executive officer and chief investment officer of BCI.

“At BCI, we are guided by our fiduciary duty to clients and our organizational purpose of helping hundreds of thousands of British Columbians secure a strong financial future. The people we are serving include our children’s teachers, our health care providers, our municipal workers, and our neighbours.”

Expanding BCI’s ESG activities from a predominantly risk-mitigation approach to one that includes ESG as a source of long-term value creation remains a corporate priority. This year’s report demonstrates our progress and work under the four components of our corporate-wide ESG Strategy: Integrate; Influence; Invest; and Insight.

BCI is committed to incorporating the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations into our reporting and disclosure practices. Our 2021 ESG Annual Report includes our TCFD-aligned reporting and a feature on BCI’s climate action journey over more than two decades. We will release an update to our Climate Action Plan in late 2022.

2021 ESG Highlights: 

Integrate

  • Continued to expand the application of our ESG Risk and Opportunity Framework, which evaluates climate-related impacts to the total portfolio over time; BCI received the Responsible Investment Association (RIA) Leadership Award for Integration for our framework and it was featured as a Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) case study
  • Conducted ESG reviews of all private equity general partners using our corporate-wide ESG Evaluation Framework for External Managers; 98 per cent have an official ESG policy and evidence of ESG integration
  • Developed a custom ESG dashboard to support our internal active emerging markets team, empowering investment staff and maximizing efficiency of our ESG resources

Influence

  • Engaged 299 companies in public markets, including through four collaborative engagement initiatives focused on climate change, human capital management, and gender diversity
  • Participated in 20 ESG-related policy consultations, roundtables, and joint statements, including the Canadian Investor Statement on Climate Change
  • Joined more than 100 general and limited partners in committing to the ESG Data Convergence Initiative, which aims to improve the quality and availability of private company data
  • Updated our ESG engagement key performance indicators for our public markets program to reflect positive trends and changing priorities; we now track five categories and over 60 datapoints

Invest

  • Participated in 37 sustainable bond issuances valued at over $1.7 billion, increasing total historical participation to more than $2.5 billion
  • Invested in the First Nations Finance Authority’s new commercial paper program, bringing total historical participation to over $750 million
  • Increased assets under management in our Global Quantitative ESG Equity Fund and Thematic Public Equity Fund, reflecting intentional allocations to these mandates and generating strong returns
  • QuadReal Property Group successfully completed its second green bond issuance in 2021, and third green issuance in February 2022, for a total of nearly $1.2 billion raised to date

Insight

  • Partnered with the University of Victoria and Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions to co-develop new climate finance tools over the next three years
  • Researched emerging trends on the opportunities that ESG presents as a source of value creation
  • Provided education and training opportunities to BCI staff, clients, and board members on topics such as climate change, Indigenous reconciliation, and labour relations

In 2021, BCI received a top spot on the Responsible Asset Allocator Initiative’s Leaders List of the 30 Most Responsible Asset Allocators, the RIA Leadership Award for Integration, and the Canadian Investment Review’s Pension Leadership Award for Sustainable Investing. This recognition reflects the increasing sophistication of our approach, and our commitment to driving positive ESG performance in our portfolio and through the broader capital markets.

Read our 2021 ESG Annual Report

Read our 2021 ESG Annual Report: Supplementary Case Studies

 

ABOUT BCI
British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) is amongst the largest institutional investors in Canada with $211.1 billion under management, as of March 31, 2022. Based in Victoria, British Columbia, with offices in Vancouver and New York City, BCI is invested in: fixed income and private debt; public and private equity; infrastructure and renewable resources; as well as real estate equity and real estate debt through our independently operated platform company QuadReal Property Group. With our global outlook, we seek investment opportunities that convert savings into productive capital that will meet our clients’ risk and return requirements over time. This compels us to integrate long-term ESG matters into all investment decisions and activities. BCI’s clients include pension plans representing over 715,000 plan members, insurance funds providing more than three million Autoplan insurance policies annually, benefits coverage to more than two million workers and 225,000 companies, and special purpose funds within BC’s public sector. Founded in 1999, BCI is a statutory corporation created by the Public Sector Pension Plans Act.

 

CONTACT
media@bci.ca 
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