About our new Australian Socially Responsible Equities investment option

Feedback from First State Super members indicates that there is a high level of interest in an environmentally friendly investment alternative.

Based on this feedback we developed a socially responsible investment option. The option is called Australian Socially Responsible Equities investment option and is available from 1 May 2009.

More about the new option

This new investment option will invest in listed Australian companies that have been screened to meet certain environmental, social, ethical and governance requirements. Click here to find out more.

You will be able invest all or part of your account balance, your future contributions and any money you transfer from other super funds.

For information about the asset allocation, investment objective, risk profile, and investment management expense for this investment option click here.

Principles for Responsible Investment

The United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment is an internationally agreed framework to help institutional investors include ethical, social and corporate governance issues into investment decision-making processes.

The Trustee is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. To find out more visit the Principles for Responsible Investment website at http://www.unpri.org/principles/

“As institutional investors, we have a duty to act in the best long-term interests of our beneficiaries. In this fiduciary role, we believe that environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) issues can affect the performance of investment portfolios (to varying degrees across companies, sectors, regions, asset classes and through time). We also recognise that applying these Principles may better align investors with broader objectives of society.” (from the UNPRI website)

Other socially responsible initiatives from the Fund

The Fund reports to more than half a million members for every six month period. With potential impacts on the environment in mind, the Fund now uses recycled paper for statements, annual reports and SuperNews and communicates with over 130,000 members through regular emails. We are also investigating options to report to members electronically, which will dramatically reduce our demand for paper.