- OVERVIEW
- INTEGRATION & ENGAGEMENT
- SOLUTIONS
- REPORTING CENTER
- PROXY VOTING
Responsible Investing Is Material
At AB, we believe that research, engagement and integration of material ESG issues can help us better assess risks and identify opportunities, ultimately leading to enhanced decision-making and better client outcomes.
The industry expertise of our investment team is important to understanding material ESG issues. Moreover, AB’s Responsible Investing team complements the investment teams’ research and engagement efforts. The Responsible Investing team is a team of subject-matter experts who partner with our other investment teams across asset classes to develop ESG research insights and often engage with issuers. The team develops proprietary frameworks and toolsets, and develops training programs. Most team members maintain an industry focus to better partner with our investment teams.
History of Our Involvement
Our Approach to ESG Integration
From idea generation to ongoing stewardship, integrating ESG involves considering material ESG risks and opportunities throughout the investment process. For ESG-integrated strategies, we incorporate material ESG issues when conducting research. Engagement then helps us support our clients’ interests. It enables us to share our ESG research assessment and encourage issuers to better address material ESG risks or take advantage of ESG opportunities in their best interests. When we ultimately make decisions, we recognize that material ESG risks and opportunities may have an impact on financial outcomes. Finally, we continue our stewardship through ongoing engagement with issuers, proxy voting and industry involvement.
Investment Teams Lead the Way
At AB, our Responsible Investing team helps portfolio managers and analysts consider and engage on material ESG risks and opportunities holistically and consistently, challenging investment teams’ thinking and encouraging analysts to incorporate this perspective into their financial models and outlooks. This robust approach helps teams consider material ESG risks and opportunities throughout their investment processes—ultimately driving better client outcomes.
Process in Action
Equip Our Investment Professionals with Education, Tools and Processes
Identify and Assess Materiality of ESG Risks and Opportunities
Engage with Issues on ESG Risks and Opportunities
Document ESG/Engagement Research and Conclusions
Incorporate ESG Findings into Models and Company Research
Integrate ESG Conclusions into Portfolio Decisions
The Active Engagement Advantage
Engagement is important to our process as active investors. Each year, AB analysts engage with leaders of companies and noncorporate entities, including municipalities, supranational and sovereign issuers. We also engage selectively through our proxy-voting activities.
These connections allow us to assess, discuss and encourage better business practices and approaches to address rapidly evolving material ESG issues. We believe that engagement can drive better research and better outcomes for our clients.
$27 Billion
in Portfolios with Purpose
$555 Billion
in assets managed with ESG integrated into the investment process
11,460
meetings with company management teams in 2024
1,200+
stakeholders registered for the Climate Change and Investment Academy 2.0
Climate Academy
AB and the Columbia Climate School are partnering to address the risks and opportunities related to climate change.
How Does Engagement Make a Difference?
We engage with issuers for two main reasons: to generate research insights (such as learning more about an issuer’s corporate strategies and competitive positioning) or for example, to encourage issuers to better address material ESG risks or take advantage of ESG opportunities, in our clients’ best interests). We believe that as active managers, our access to and engagement with issuers can enhance risk-adjusted returns. We engage with issuers in several ways: through fundamental engagement (including thematic and proxy-voting engagement), policy advocacy and collaborative engagement.
Fundamental
We engage directly with issuers and stakeholders as part of our research and investment process for equities, fixed income and other asset classes. Constructive engagements create a channel to discuss topics such as strategy, business operations and material ESG issues. This includes thematic engagement, where we may develop a framework to engage issuers on themes that are common across many issuers, or engaging issuers as part of our proxy-voting process.
Policy Advocacy
We engage with governments, regulators and other drivers of public policy when we believe it’s in our clients’ best interests. These engagements take the form of comment letters, appearances at formal meetings of regulatory bodies, and direct engagement with key government stakeholders. They often center on investment impacts or stewardship concerns related to existing or proposed regulatory changes, including effects on share classes, reporting requirements or the treatment of ESG risks.
Collaboration
We sometimes work with non-AB investors, asset owners and/or industry organizations on engagements. This can happen when we’ve independently arrived at the same conclusion as other managers/investors and believe that collaboration might help address specific issues.
Collaborate, Explore, Advance
Proprietary Research-Collaboration Platforms
We’ve developed innovative platforms that power collaboration between our analysts within and across asset classes as we research and engage with issuers.
- Chapters
- descriptions off, selected
- captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
- captions off, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.
ESIGHT
ESIGHT is a one-stop online shop where AB investment teams can access and share proprietary information about corporate ESG practices. The platform shares ESG issuer assessments, proxy-voting history, engagements, and third-party research from MSCI and Sustainalytics. It’s also a knowledge center with a wealth of ESG information, including thematic sell-side research reports, academic studies, nongovernment entity reports and our own proprietary ESG ratings.
PRISM
Our proprietary credit-rating and scoring system, PRISM, provides independent ESG assessments and scores that affect investment decisions. The goal, of course, is straightforward: better and faster information can empower better decisions.
- Chapters
- descriptions off, selected
- captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
- captions off, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.
- Chapters
- descriptions off, selected
- captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
- captions off, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.
PRISM: Unlocking the Power of ESG Data
A new approach to credit research helps portfolio managers make better and faster investment decisions.
Designing ESG-Focused Solutions
Clients often define responsible investing in very individualized ways. Diverse priorities and distinct preferences often point toward very different approaches, and some investors seek an ESG-focused approach for their portfolios.
That’s why AB offers a broad range of thoughtfully designed solutions, each seeking to achieve financial objectives with a dedicated ESG focus: our Portfolios with Purpose platform.
From equities to fixed income and from multi-asset to alternatives, investors can access these strategies across asset classes. The Portfolios with Purpose also offer diverse sector exposures and performance patterns suitable for different types of market environments. Broadly speaking, we group our solutions into three categories: Sustainable portfolios, Impact portfolios and Responsible+ portfolios.
Since we launched the Portfolios with Purpose platform in 2013, we’ve continued to deepen and broaden it. Much of this effort has been informed by listening to our clients and understanding what they need. Our research has also driven innovation when we see opportunity in an ESG theme, whether it’s investing in low-carbon issuers or those aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Year first Portfolio with Purpose was launched
Dollars invested in Portfolios with Purpose
As of December 31, 2024
Portfolios with Purpose
Sustainable
Invest in issuers that address environmental or social factors, whether through their products, services or practices. Prominent themes include climate, health and empowerment.
Impact
Invest in issuers that can provide a positive and measurable impact on society or the environment.
Responsible+
Invest with a responsibility focus, such as climate resilience or best-in-class allocations. These portfolios adopt a range of strategies to improve management of material ESG risks and opportunities, and they fall into one of the following two subcategories: ESG Leaders and Climate Conscious.
UN SDGs: A Road Map for Investors
In recent years, severe weather damage, the global pandemic, and political, economic, and social unrest have made ESG issues more tangible. This has fueled a global movement to take responsibility for addressing these challenges.
Sustainable development involves finding solutions to these critical challenges. Directing capital to businesses that provide solutions can provide investors with exposure to fast-growing industries that may help to preserve and, ultimately, increase their wealth.
The United Nations (UN) established the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a powerful framework of 17 goals to help countries address the challenges of economic prosperity, environmental sustainability and social inclusion. They represent an aspirational view of what the world can look like by 2030. We believe the UN SDGs can help investors connect the world’s crises with actionable investment themes and can serve as a road map for translating sustainability issues into investible opportunities.
Based on this mind-set, we’ve developed a practical framework focused on four themes: climate, health, empowerment and strong institutions for sovereigns.
Sustainable
Efforts to stem climate change are gaining momentum around the world. Many consumers, businesses and policymakers recognize the need for change.
- Cleaner energy
- Resource efficiency
- Sanitation and recycling
- Sustainable transportation
Healthcare spending is rising and people are living longer, which raises complex issues around access to high-quality, affordable medicine and long-term care.
- Access to quality care
- Food security and clean water
- Medical innovation
- Well-being
Many sectors of society are marginalized by economic and social forces. Physical and technological infrastructure is needed to enable sustainable economic development, employment growth, the eradication of poverty and social inclusion.
- Education and employment services
- Financial security and inclusion
- Information and communication
- Sustainable infrastructure
Responsible sovereigns provide the foundation for private sector innovation as well as effective and accountable public policymaking.
- Freedom and fundamental rights
- Anti-corruption and government
- Law and order
Impact
Our Impact strategies seek to make a positive and measurable impact on the environment and society while generating a financial return. Impact investments may focus on one or more of the following areas:
- Building high-functioning schools that help students set and achieve their goals
- Transitioning from fossil fuels to renewables
- Expanding and improving mass transportation
- Supplying clean water
- Increasing access to quality healthcare and improving community health
- Addressing decaying physical infrastructure and a lack of affordable housing
- Promoting minority- and women-owned businesses
- Investing capital to create better services, jobs, thriving businesses and other components that lead to healthy, vibrant neighborhoods
Responsible+
Our Responsible+ strategies invest with a responsibility or ESG focus. The theme varies across strategies; it may include investing in low-carbon issuers, in companies that support China’s net zero goals or in clean energy. Portfolios may fall under the following subcategories:
- ESG Leaders: focused on investing in issuers with best-in-class practices
- Climate Conscious: focused on climate resiliency
Latest Reports
Policies, Statements and Disclosures
We view transparency, disclosure and our reporting to clients as paramount to effective stewardship and responsibility. We strive to be transparent in what we do, from our philosophy and policies to our investment process and outcomes. This transparency is manifested in both our disclosures and reporting. The below documents present a variety of policies, statements and disclosures of our responsibility activities—from carbon emissions data to our Board of Directors Diversity Matrix to our Proxy Voting and Governance Policy.
Policies and Statements
Data Disclosures
Shareholder Rights Directive II (SRD II) Disclosures
The SRD II aims to encourage long-term shareholder engagement and transparency between traded companies and investors. Asset managers and institutional investors can play a vital role in the responsible stewardship of assets.
Transparency in Coverage
Proxy Voting and Governance
To be effective stewards of our clients’ investments and maximize shareholder value, we vote proxies on behalf of our clients with the same commitment to rigorous research and engagement that we apply to our investment activities. We do not outsource our proxy-voting responsibilities nor adhere to the recommendations of proxy advisors. AB’s in-house global policy details how we approach specific topics, as well as our processes for managing conflicts of interest, voting execution, vote disclosure and recordkeeping. Our voting decisions are guided by what we determine as most likely to enhance long-term investment performance, and we will hold management accountable where appropriate.
A Global Effort: Where We Voted in 2024
Global-Related Proxy Information
-
Download
Proxy Voting and Governance Policy
-
Charter of the Proxy Voting and Governance Committee
-
Learn More
Proxy Voting Records
-
Learn More
Mutual Funds Proxy Statements
-
Learn More
Predisclosed Vote Intentions
As a registered investment advisor, AllianceBernstein L.P. ("AB,” "we" or "us") has a fiduciary duty to act solely in the best interests of our clients. We recognize that this duty requires us to vote client securities in a timely manner and make voting decisions that are in the best interests of our clients. Consistent with these obligations, we will disclose our clients' voting records only to them and as required by mutual fund vote disclosure regulations. In addition, the proxy committees may, after careful consideration, choose to respond to surveys regarding past votes.
This statement is intended to comply with Rule 206(4)-6 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. It sets forth our policies and procedures for voting proxies for our discretionary investment advisory clients, including investment companies registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. This statement applies to AB's investment groups investing on behalf of clients in both US and non-US securities.