Transparency & Disclosure
USS acknowledges the importance of transparency and accountability on RI. However, this is balanced with the need for discretion and maintaining confidence with investee companies and others we engage with, and with prioritisation of resources. The RI team report regularly to the USS Investment Committee and Board of the fund. Both the Investment Committees and Board include representatives of our institutional and individual members reflecting a broad spectrum of views about RI. The fund regularly provides RI Activity Reports and covers RI within its Annual Reports and Members’ Annual Reports and in the annual presentation to the fund’s institutional members. USS discloses its RI policies, strategy, key activities, voting records and a list of companies held by the fund via this website.
RI Press Releases & Statements
- Updated USS Railpen UK Voting Policy, December 2011
- USS and UK Stewardship Code, 28 September 2010
- Pension funds declare support for the FRCs Stewardship Code, 23 September 2010
- Global Investor Statement in Support of Effective Electronic Voting in Brazil, 30 July 2010
- Shell shareholder resolution on oil sands, May 2010
- BP shareholder resolution on oil sands, 15 April 2010
- USS and Hermes request Enterprise Chamber hearing on corporate governance changes at Océ, 22 February 2010
- USS and Railpen convene voting & engagement alliance, February 2010
- Institutional investors launch first global environmental benchmark for property sector, January 2010
- Climate change threatens corporate balance sheets – press statement, 23 November 2009
- Launch of investors’ climate change adaptation report, 23 November 2009
- USS welcomes US private equity guidelines on responsible investment, 9 February 2009
- Climate change adaptation - press statement, 14 January 2008
- Institutional Investors Report on the Health of the Pharma Sector: Collaborative Study with Industry Leaders Sees Need for Fundamental Shift, Pharma Futures - Press Release - June 19, 2007
- USS announces expansion of Responsible Investment team, 21 February 2007
- Investors call upon SEC to adopt rule allowing shareholder advisory vote on executive compensation, 5 February 2007
- Investors, trade bodies and financial sector players call on the DTI to restore clarity in the post OFR world, January 2006
- Non-US Investors call on the American Bar Association (ABA) to move towards a majority vote standard for shareholders to elect directors to US boards, September 2005
- Enhanced Analytics Initiative: changing the way the broker community analyses extra-financial issues and intangibles, October 2004
- Pharmaceutical Shareowners Group - press release, September 2004
Videos
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A selection of published articles on USS and RI
Additional links may be found in the RI Activity Reports
- Institutional investors raise the bar on climate change, 5 March 2010
- USS and Hermes file request for investigation, Professional Pensions, 23 February 2010
- Good Business, Responsible Investment, Unquote, October 2009
- Responsible investment and climate change: Addressing the limits to engagement, Ethical Corporation, September 2009
- Measurable Impacts, Benefits Canada, July 2007
- Knowing Green, Benefits Canada, July 2007
- Europe follows in US footsteps to courtroom, 22 June 2007
- In the Public Interest, Ethical Corporation, November 2006
- The good, the bad...and the secretive, The Guardian, 25 Nov 2006
- What's in a Name?, Values Network, January 2006
- In RI we trust, RBC Dexia Special Report, May 2007
- USS expands SRI team, IPE, February 2007
- Nokia’s Business Boom, Time, 16 November 2003
- Compensation Experts Offer Ways to Help Curb Executive Salaries, The New York Times, December 30, 2006
- The Finance of Climate Change - Book chapter co-authored by David Russell, July 2005