Equity ESG exclusions
Vanguard’s ESG equity index funds help investors remove exposure to controversial business activities and/or conduct.
View our ESG equity funds & ETFsOur approach to ESG
With more than 50 million clients globally who look to us to both safeguard and grow their investments, we think about environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in the context of delivering long-term value to our investors and helping them to meet their objectives.
Investments you can believe in
We believe that material ESG risks, if left unchecked, can undermine long-term value in the companies in which we invest. Over time, well-governed companies, including those with sound practices to mitigate material ESG risks should outperform those that are poorly governed. As a result, we integrate ESG considerations into our investment processes and our product design in a number of ways.
Engage
As long-term owners of the companies in which our funds invest, we engage with companies on material ESG issues as we believe they can impact long-term value creation.
Allocate
Many of our active funds aim to allocate capital to companies based on how they manage ESG considerations, alongside other factors, even where they don’t have an explicit ESG investment strategy.
Avoid
We develop products that allow investors to avoid exposure to companies that are not aligned with their values, or to mitigate certain ESG risks.
Tackling climate change
As an investment manager and the steward of our clients’ assets, Vanguard has a duty to maximise total return for investors and to seek to encourage portfolio companies to take appropriate steps to mitigate material risks to those returns. Vanguard considers climate change—and the evolving global policy responses required to mitigate its impact—to be a material and fundamental risk to companies and to their shareholders’ long-term financial success.
Accordingly, we have an important role to play in engaging with, and encouraging real progress by, portfolio companies to mitigate the potential consequences of climate change.
Vanguard’s Report on Climate-related Impacts 2022
Read our report about our approach to climate change. You'll learn how we’re approaching climate-related risks and opportunities, and how that compares to similar companies. The report covers governance, strategy, risk management and metrics and targets. The report is aligned to recommendations provided by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.
Engage through investment stewardship
Our approach to investment stewardship
To safeguard the investments of Vanguard’s 50 million clients worldwide, our global stewardship team engages with boards and management teams regularly; votes on issues at company annual general meetings and director appointments; and advocates for effective stewardship with long-term shareholder value in mind.
Key principles of our investment stewardship programme:
Board composition and effectiveness
Individuals who represent the interests of all shareholders should be independent, capable and experienced. In addition, we want boards to have appropriate gender and ethnic diversity, as well as diversity of thought and background.
Oversight of risk and strategy
Boards are responsible for effective oversight of relevant material risks, including environmental and social risks, and governance of the company’s long-term strategy.
Executive remuneration
Compensation policies linked to long-term performance are fundamental drivers of sustainable, long-term value for a company’s investors.
Shareholder rights
Corporate governance structures should empower shareholders and ensure accountability of the board and management.
Learn more about investment stewardship
Avoid the companies you don’t believe in
Some investors don’t want exposure to certain ESG risks or want to avoid companies that don’t align with their values. Vanguard currently offers several exclusionary ESG products across equity and fixed income that help investors to avoid certain ESG risks.
View our ESG exclusionary funds
Allocate capital with active funds
We look to the managers of our active funds to assess companies’ ESG risks on a case-by-case basis. Incorporating ESG risk into security selection for active funds without an explicit ESG mandate does not preclude the fund from investing in certain companies or sectors because of their business activities. Rather, it ensures ESG risks and opportunities are considered alongside other factors when selecting investments.
Important risk information:
The value of investments, and the income from them, may fall or rise and investors may get back less than they invested.
For further information on risks please see the “Risk Factors” section of the prospectus on our website.