HESTA joins tobacco-free portfolio initiative

1 June 2017
| By Hope William-Smith |
image
image
expand image

HESTA is placing its support behind the health and community services sectors and is playing its role in raising awareness of the negative impacts of tobacco by encouraging investors to limit portfolio exposure to it, according to chief executive, Debby Blakey.

Blakey said many HESTA investors were employed in the health and community services sector and were already pre-exposed to tobacco-associated health risks.

“It’s vitally important that we raise awareness of this issue. We’re committed to responsibly investing our member’s super savings by being a careful long-term steward of their investments,” she said.

“Our portfolio-wide exclusion on tobacco and signing this Investor Statement reflects our ongoing commitment to ensuring that we’re making a positive impact on the world our members will retire into.”

The move from HESTA coincides with World No Tobacco Day, with the investor statement backed by the United Nations’ (UN) Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). The UN would release a list of signatories today.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest developments in Super Review! Anytime, Anywhere!

Grant Banner

From my perspective, 40- 50% of people are likely going to be deeply unhappy about how long they actually live. ...

10 months 3 weeks ago
Kevin Gorman

Super director remuneration ...

11 months ago
Anthony Asher

No doubt true, but most of it is still because over 45’s have been upgrading their houses with 30 year mortgages. Money ...

11 months ago

Senator Andrew Bragg has doubled down on super funds regarding their contributions to unions and how they are handling regulatory fines, emphasising that they appear to b...

7 hours ago

The fund has announced the departure of a second senior executive in as many months, with its chief member officer to finish up mid-December....

1 day 2 hours ago

The CEO of Cbus has defended the fund’s relationship with the CFMEU....

1 day 6 hours ago