ACCESS LGPS Pool appoints Minerva as ESG adviser

3rd March 2021 – The ACCESS Pool has appointed Minerva Analytics, Europe’s leading independent stewardship support service, to support the development of its responsible investment approach.

Minerva Analytics will be helping ACCESS with a comprehensive review and revision of the pool’s responsible investment guidelines to ensure they capture the very latest thinking on Environmental Social and Governance (ESG), Stewardship and Climate Change issues.

Ashridge Estate, Hertfordshire

Through workshops and a programme of in-depth research, Minerva’s expert team will establish a baseline on a wide range of ESG and responsible investment issues across the full range of asset classes for the pool. The ACCESS Joint Committee will use Minerva’s analysis and recommendations to inform their future actions and to meet the requirements and ambitions of Authorities within the pool.

ACCESS is a collaboration of 11 LGPS Authorities which enables investments on behalf of more than one million members and 3,250 public sector employers, consisting of over £31bn of pension assets1.

Cllr Kemp-Gee, Chairman of the ACCESS Joint Committee, said, “Our objective is to develop a best-in-class investment offer for our LGPS Authorities, and a significant part of that process is ensuring responsible investment practices are well informed and effectively deployed.

“This collaboration with Minerva will give us the tools and data to help fulfil long term responsibilities to the schemes and their members.

Commenting on the appointment, chief executive of Minerva, Sarah Wilson said: “We’re delighted to be appointed by ACCESS and are looking forward to working with the team on this important and timely project. Minerva continues to build on its 25-year track record with the LGPS community, supporting them through this period of immense regulatory and market change with innovative solutions.”

As at 31 December 2020 the Authorised Contractual scheme (ACS) operated by Link Fund Solutions contained £20.5bn of active assets, and £10.7bn of passive assets were managed by UBS.

Notes for Editors

Media enquiries:

ACCESS

Calum MacDougall, ENGINE MHP

access@mhpc.com / +44 (0)7712 536 361

Minerva

Eden Smith, Communications Manager

hello@minerva.info / +44 (0)1376 503500

About the ACCESS Pool

ACCESS (A Collaboration of Central, Eastern and Southern Shires) is made up of 11 LGPS Administering Authorities: Cambridgeshire County Council; East Sussex County Council; Essex County Council; Hampshire County Council; Hertfordshire County Council; Isle of Wight Council; Kent County Council; Norfolk County Council; Northamptonshire County Council; Suffolk County Council; and West Sussex County Council.

The ACCESS Administering Authorities are committed to working together and have each signed an Inter Authority Agreement, setting out how they will work together in response to the Governments pooling agenda across the LGPS, and to optimise benefits and efficiencies on behalf of their individual and collective stakeholders.

ACCESS appointed Link Fund Solutions Limited to provide Operator services in early 2018.

Link Fund Solutions Limited is responsible for establishing and operating the Authorised Contractual Scheme (ACS) along with creating the investment sub-funds and appointing the investment managers to those sub-funds.

About Minerva

Minerva, through its subsidiary The Manifest Voting Agency Ltd, has over 25 years’ experience of supporting asset owners and managers with innovative stewardship support solutions including proxy vote agency, custom voting policies, sustainable stock lending, SDG mapping and ESG data projects. Minerva continues to innovate and now, as part of the Solactive family, is at the forefront of ESG-centric stewardship for global investors.