For us, at Old Mutual Corporate, responsible business is about sustainability. It speaks directly to our reason for being and to our purpose, which is about servicing our clients, becoming their first choice and helping them to achieve their lifetime financial goals.
To stay true to our vision and purpose, we must be sustainable. And to be sustainable, we must be responsible.
Old Mutual Corporate is part of a vast group, one of South Africa’s largest financial services companies. This enables us to use our size to drive transformation in the South African environment through our procurement practices, our B-BBEE scores, our enterprise-supplier development work and through our focus on enabling small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Investing in tomorrow today
At an Old Mutual Limited level, we use an environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework to guide our sustainability efforts. ‘Social’ here stands for transformation – this is, the economic transformation of South Africa.
It is significant, because you have to look at the sustainability of the ecosystem in which you operate. As you go broader, this ultimately encompasses the whole world. That’s why environmental issues like climate change are so relevant to this conversation.
In terms of investment and long-term sustainability, climate change is the largest issue facing the world. South Africa is a carbon-intensive economy, which emphasises our need to be responsible in how we support ways to reverse business’s effect on the environment, while balancing it with the effect on our economy and our society.
To that end, the Old Mutual Group has joined both the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance and the Net Zero Asset Managers Alliance.
We take responsible investment seriously, ensuring that we look after our fund members’ money while putting it to use in places that will help society. Our purpose is to help people achieve their lifetime financial goals.
This means that we are custodians of a large part of their finances, which in turn makes us custodians of a massive share of assets.
The key to delivering the desired returns lies in how we invest and how we responsibly oversee our investments. Old Mutual Corporate predominantly utilises Old Mutual Investment Group (OMIG), which recently won a 2022 Sustainable Asset Manager Award in 27four’s ESG survey.
What does this look like in practical terms? From a responsible investment perspective, we focus on clean energy, education (including building schools and student housing), affordable housing, and agricultural projects. These are all great areas that deliver returns for our clients while building our society as a whole.
Education also includes supporting Old Mutual Superfund members through our Financial Wellbeing Programme … but it doesn’t end there. Our Learn. Think. Do initiative takes a much longer-term view by focusing on high-school learners.
We know that the more equitable, capable, employable, future-fit our society is, the more opportunity there will be for everyone. Our responsible business approach is aligned to that long-term view. It’s not just about the commercial aspects; being ‘Truly Mutual’ is about being responsible and recognising that we’re part of a broader ecosystem.
Old Mutual is 177 years old, and we intend to be here for at least the next 177 years. We’re in this for the long haul.
The 4 pillars of Old Mutual’s Sustainability Strategy
- Transforming ourselves through skills development, demographic representation of our staff and building an inclusive pool of experts.
- Using our size to make a bigger impact. As Old Mutual Corporate is part of a larger group, working as a collective can achieve so much more.
- Bolstering our people’s education and financial education through our free Financial Wellbeing Programme as well as broader educational initiatives like On The Money, 22seven and Learn. Think. Do.
- Promoting responsible investment through investments that are good for our customers and for society as a whole.
This article originally appeared in MiNDSPACE magazine, issue 2 2022. Read the full issue here .
By Prabashini Moodley
Prabashini has more than 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry and has been Managing Director of Old Mutual Corporate since November 2019.