Sustainability Awards

In an industry managing trillions of dollars, investment managers' decisions, directly and indirectly, affect countless lives, the environment, and the overall fabric of life every day. The Sustainability Award aims to assess the fund manager's ability to manage medium- to long-term environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities. ESG is now a mainstream Category for Mutual Funds and ETF s to show off their walking their talk sustainability practices. We continue to recognize the funds driving the most sustainable impact while generating shareholders' value.

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Awards Categories and Criteria

Sustainability Awards

The Sustainability Awards welcome firms who believe in their managers' ability to manage medium- to long-term environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities. These categories allow Mutual Funds and ETFs to show off their walking the talks of their sustainability practices. We continue to recognize the funds driving the most sustainable impact while generating shareholders' value.

The ESG Integration Award recognizes investment management companies that demonstrate commitments to integrate ESG into their investment decision-making throughout the investment process for the entire suites of their products and investment activities. It reinforces ESG's role in Long-Term Value Creation.

Categories available for pitching:

Best Equity ESG Integration

Best Fixed Income ESG Integration

Best Multi-Assets ESG Integration

Best Alternative ESG Integration

Judges will be looking for qualities in the:

Systematic approach: innovative approaches to applying environmental, social, and governance (ESG) analysis to the funds being managed across the board, despite the sectors, countries, and asset classes

Alignment level with the EU's SFDR Article 8 regulatory technical standard for ESG integration

Buy-in of the team and implementation: how multiple units come to a consensus for the performance across the board

Disclosure: disclosed policies and procedures for integrating ESG information and metrics into the investment process communicated to investee companies

Execution: resources, constraints, and timeline management

Outcomes: How are results measured?

Judges will also evaluate the fund based on the alignment level with the EU's SFDR Article 8 regulatory technical standard for ESG integration.

An independent ESG and critical sustainability metrics report of the funds submitted by the candidates will be drawn from BlueOnion to demonstrate the walking the talks of the funds' ESG scoring, Risk ranking, and rating, as well as the Paris Agreement's Temperature alignment against their peers.
This award recognizes fund houses putting the welfare of the beneficiaries at the forefront. This award is given to the fund houses that embrace Responsible Investing and practice Active Ownership and integrate ESG into their ownership policies and practices while driving positive real-world goals. Apart from illustrating their collaborative engagement initiatives with the investees, they prioritize outcomes at the society/economy-wide scales, such as addressing climate change and corruption, rather than purely focusing on pure risks and returns of the holdings in the portfolio.

Judges will be looking for qualities in:

the foundation of the practical stewardship principles

ongoing development and implementation of the stewardship policies

monitoring and assessment techniques of investee companies

the collaboration goals and engagement principles with investee companies and investors

how voting rights are exercised
how ESG is promoted as long-term value creation

level of transparency, disclosure, and reporting

Multiple funds of the candidates will be drawn randomly from BlueOnion* to demonstrate the walking the talks of the fund houses’ ESG, GC, and Temperature performances against their peers.

*BlueOnion is Benchmark's disruptive fund research platform hosting over 290,000 funds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score in 67 countries.

www.blueonion.today
The Transparency Award recognizes investment management companies that demonstrate commitment to disclosing the firm's and their investment portfolios' climate-related financial risks and how their existing processes support their investment decisions.

Judges will also evaluate the house based on the level of disclosure under the TCFD guideline of the four pillars of Governance, Strategy, Goals & Metrics, and Risk Management, and the other 11 metrics associated with the four pillars.

Judges will be looking for qualities in the:

TCFD Report from the last reporting cycle

Additional voluntary disclosures beyond regulatory requirement

Percentage of companies in the constituents that are aligned with the disclosures of the four pillars and 11 topics and their qualities of disclosure

Policies and procedures disclosed for strategies tackling physical and transition risks described in the reporting, and the goals and metrics set for achievement

BlueOnion* will provide an independent TCFD alignment report for the fund to assist the jurors with the assessment. The information will reveal the underlying companies of the constituents that are aligned with the disclosure requirement based on five levels: Basic, Foundation, Core, Enhanced, and Unaligned.

*BlueOnion is Benchmark's disruptive fund research platform hosting over 290,000 funds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score in 67 countries.

www.blueonion.today
The Climate Risk Management Award recognizes an investment house that identifies, assesses, and manages climate-related risks as part of the core risk management protocol.

Judges will be looking at the approaches of the firm to manage climate-related risks and opportunities:

How the manager engages with the investees to set climate-risk metrics and encourage sustainable practices in their operations, and the same goes for fixed-income houses, their collaborative and collective engagement

How the manager's risk management teams integrate traditional investment processes to monitor counterparty and credit risks

How the team uses carbon-related and climate risk metrics to enable a deeper financial analysis of potential risks during security selection

What are the metrics being used for risk mitigation?

The paths the manager has taken before divestment and the stakeholder's protection.

BlueOnion* will provide independent Risk Scores for the funds managed by the manager randomly chosen to assist the jurors with the assessment. The information will reveal the underlying companies of the constituents that are aligned with the overall ESG, a standalone Environmental, Social, and Governance Risk Score, and the Carbon Risk Score.

*BlueOnion is Benchmark's disruptive fund research platform hosting over 290,000 funds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score in 67 countries.

www.blueonion.today
The Climate Governance Award recognizes an investment house with apparent board oversight and management's role in assessing and managing climate-related risks and opportunities.

Judges will be looking at the approaches of the firm to governance in climate-related risks and opportunities:

How the board has laid out the policies and defined clear responsibilities between the board and the management involvement and the risks articulation to include fiduciary duties, risk mitigation, etc.

How a consensus comes about for board-approved policies, goals, and target setting and how progress is measured and reported

The strategies and activities for upskilling internal skill sets and expertise, linkage to corporate strategy, and capacity building for senior management to the most junior personnel

BlueOnion* will provide independent Environmental Commitment scores for the funds randomly chosen from the investment firm to assist the jurors with the assessment.

The information will reveal the overall portfolio of the funds chosen and their underlying companies of the constituents of their public pledges to Renewable

Energy Usage Target, Sustainability Integration, Air Emissions Reduction, Ensuring Environmental Protection, Biodiversity Protection Targets, Hazardous Waste Reduction, and Water Strategy

*BlueOnion is Benchmark's disruptive fund research platform hosting over 290,000 funds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score in 67 countries.

www.blueonion.today
The Climate Strategy Award recognizes an investment house with the best strategy to tack actual and potential impacts of climate-related risks and opportunities on both the organization and their investment portfolio levels.

Judges will be looking at the approaches of the firm strategy development in climate-related risks and opportunities:

How objectives are set to promote stewardship and encourage investees for climate strategy development

How the managers are capturing green investment opportunities while targeting to reduce the carbon footprint and mitigate exposure to carbon-intensive assets

How is the process of identifying and mitigating the portfolios' transition and physical risks and the percentages of exposures to both dangers, and the divestment/re-weighting of holdings to reduce exposure to stranded assets

What impact do the firm's portfolios have on climate change – the 1.5°C or 2.0°C scenario compared to the benchmark?

What are the firm's scenario analysis and stress testing helping to value the assets at risk

BlueOnion* will provide independent reporting on Carbon Exposures for the funds randomly chosen from the investment firm to assist the jurors with the assessment.

The information will reveal the overall portfolio of the funds chosen and their underlying companies of the constituents of their exposures in Stranded Assets, Country Risk, Carbon Footprint, Scope 1&2 emissions, water withdrawal and toxic waste production, and the Temperature Alignment of 1.5°C or 2.0°C scenario.

*BlueOnion is Benchmark's disruptive fund research platform hosting over 290,000 funds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score in 67 countries.

www.blueonion.today

Awards Categories and Criteria

Passive Managers

The Passive Managers Awards welcome firms who believe in their managers' ability to manage medium- to long-term environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities. These categories allow Mutual Funds and ETFs to show off their walking the talks of their sustainability practices. We continue to recognize the funds driving the most sustainable impact while generating shareholders' value.

Our impact thematic categories for passive strategies are targeted at positively impacting the world while making respectable risk-adjusted returns. Judges will look for your competitive proposition on the impact investment negative and positive impact, the progress towards achieving those goals, the scale of the investments vs. the impact terms created, and how the effect contributes to society/economy-wide solutions.

Categories for 2023:

Alternative Energy

Carbon Reduction

Circular Economy

Ecosystem Regeneration

Energy Transition

Environmental Impact

Food and Nutrition

GSS Bond

Natural Resources

Regenerative Agriculture

Social Impact

Sustainable Living

Sustainable Planet/World

Waste management

Water Focused

An independent ESG and key sustainability metrics report of the funds submitted by the candidates will be drawn from BlueOnion* to demonstrate the walking the talks of the ETF providers' ESG scoring, Risk ranking and rating, as well as the Paris Agreement's Temperature alignment against their peers. You can enter more than one fund for each category by registering under a separate entry.

*BlueOnion is Benchmark's disruptive fund research platform hosting over 290,000 funds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score in 73 countries.

www.blueonion.today
The ESG Integration Award recognizes investment management companies that demonstrate commitments to integrate ESG into their investment decision-making throughout the investment process for the entire suites of their products, investment activities and reinforces ESG’s role in Long-Term Value Creation.

Judges will be looking for qualities in:

the systematic approach: innovative approaches to applying environmental, social, and governance (ESG) analysis to the funds being managed across the board, despite the sectors, countries, and asset classes

the team buy-in and implementation: how multiple teams come to a consensus for the performance across the board

disclosure: disclosed policies and procedures for integrating ESG information and metrics into the investment process communicated to investee companies

execution: resources, constraints, and timeline management

outcomes: How are results measured the key learnings from this approach

Multiple funds of the candidates will be drawn randomly from BlueOnion to demonstrate the walking the talks of the fund houses’ ESG, GC, and Temperature performances against their peers.

*BlueOnion is Benchmark’s disruptive fund research platform hosting over 290,000 funds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score in 67 countries.

www.blueonion.today
Many ETF providers provide excuses for not exercising proper stewardship owing to the nature of being “passive". This award recognizes ETF providers for putting the welfare of the beneficiaries at the forefront, and those who believe in Passive Managers having an Active Voice – who practice responsible Investing and active ownership and integrate ESG into their ownership policies and practices while driving positive real-world goals. Apart from illustrating their collaborative engagement initiatives with the investees, they prioritize outcomes at the society/economy-wide scales, such as addressing climate change and corruption, rather than purely focusing on pure risks and returns of the holdings in the portfolio.

Judges will be looking for qualities in:

the foundation of the practical stewardship principles

ongoing development and implementation of the stewardship policies

monitoring and assessment techniques of investee companies

the collaboration goals and engagement principles with investee companies and investors

how voting rights are exercised

how ESG is promoted as long-term value creation

level of transparency, disclosure, and reporting

Multiple funds of the candidates will be drawn randomly from BlueOnion to demonstrate the walking the talks of the fund houses’ ESG, GC, and Temperature performances against their peers.

*BlueOnion is Benchmark's disruptive fund research platform hosting over 290,000 funds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score in 67 countries.

www.blueonion.today
The Transparency Award recognizes ETF Issuers that demonstrate commitment to disclosing the firm's and their investment portfolios' climate-related financial risks and how their existing processes support their investment decisions.

Judges will be looking for qualities in the:

TCFD Report from the last reporting cycle

Additional voluntary disclosures beyond regulatory requirement

Percentage of companies in the constituents that are aligned with the disclosures of the four pillars and 11 topics and their qualities of disclosure

Policies and procedures disclosed for strategies tackling physical and transition risks described in the reporting, and the goals and metrics set for achievement

Judges will also evaluate the house based on the level of disclosure under the TCFD guideline of the four pillars of Governance, Strategy, Goals & Metrics, and Risk Management, and the other 11 metrics associated with the four pillars.

* BlueOnion will provide an independent TCFD alignment report for the fund to assist the jurors with the assessment. The information will reveal the underlying companies of the constituents that are aligned with the disclosure requirement based on five levels: Basic, Foundation, Core, Enhanced, and Unaligned.

*BlueOnion is Benchmark's disruptive fund research platform hosting over 290,000 funds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score in 67 countries.

www.blueonion.today
The Climate Risk Management Award recognizes ETF Issuers that identify, assess, and manages climate-related risks as part of the core risk management protocol.

Judges will be looking at the approaches of the firm to manage climate-related risks and opportunities:

How the manager engages with the investees to set climate-risk metrics and encourage sustainable practices in their operations, and the same goes for fixed-income houses, their collaborative and collective engagement

How the manager's risk management teams integrate traditional investment processes to monitor counterparty and credit risks

How the team uses carbon-related and climate risk metrics to enable a deeper financial analysis of potential risks during security selection

What are the metrics being used for risk mitigation?

The paths the manager has taken before divestment and the stakeholder's protection.

* BlueOnion will provide independent Risk Scores for the funds managed by the manager randomly chosen to assist the jurors with the assessment. The information will reveal the underlying companies of the constituents that are aligned with the overall ESG, a standalone Environmental, Social, and Governance Risk Score, and the Carbon Risk Score.

* BlueOnion is Benchmark's disruptive fund research platform hosting over 290,000 funds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score in 67 countries.

www.blueonion.today
The Climate Governance Award recognizes ETF Issuers with apparent board oversight and management's role in assessing and managing climate-related risks and opportunities.

Judges will be looking at the approaches of the firm to governance in climate-related risks and opportunities:

How the board has laid out the policies and defined clear responsibilities between the board and the management involvement and the risks articulation to include fiduciary duties, risk mitigation, etc.
How a consensus comes about for board-approved policies, goals, and target setting and how progress is measured and reported
The strategies and activities for upskilling internal skill sets and expertise, linkage to corporate strategy, and capacity building for senior management to the most junior personnel

* BlueOnion will provide independent Environmental Commitment scores for the funds randomly chosen from the investment firm to assist the jurors with the assessment.

The information will reveal the overall portfolio of the funds chosen and their underlying companies of the constituents of their public pledges to Renewable Energy Usage Target, Sustainability Integration, Air Emissions Reduction, Ensuring Environmental Protection, Biodiversity Protection Targets, Hazardous Waste Reduction, and Water Strategy

*BlueOnion is Benchmark's disruptive fund research platform hosting over 290,000 funds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score in 67 countries.
The Climate Strategy Award recognizes an investment house with the best strategy to tack actual and potential impacts of climate-related risks and opportunities on both the organization and their investment portfolio levels.

Judges will be looking at the approaches of the firm strategy development in climate-related risks and opportunities:

How objectives are set to promote stewardship and encourage investees for climate strategy development

How the managers are capturing green investment opportunities while targeting to reduce the carbon footprint and mitigate exposure to carbon-intensive assets

How is the process of identifying and mitigating the portfolios' transition and physical risks and the percentages of exposures to both dangers, and the divestment/re-weighting of holdings to reduce exposure to stranded assets

What impact do the firm's portfolios have on climate change – the 1.5°C or 2.0°C scenario compared to the benchmark?

What are the firm's scenario analysis and stress testing helping to value the assets at risk

BlueOnion* will provide independent reporting on Carbon Exposures for the funds randomly chosen from the investment firm to assist the jurors with the assessment.

The information will reveal the overall portfolio of the funds chosen and their underlying companies of the constituents of their exposures in Stranded Assets, Country Risk, Carbon Footprint, Scope 1&2 emissions, water withdrawal and toxic waste production, and the Temperature Alignment of 1.5°C or 2.0°C scenario.

*BlueOnion is Benchmark's disruptive fund research platform hosting over 290,000 funds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score in 67 countries.

www.blueonion.today

Awards Categories and Criteria

Impact Thematic Awards

Our impact thematic categories for active strategies are targeted at positively impacting the world while making respectable risk-adjusted returns. Judges will look for your competitive proposition on the impact investment negative and positive impact, the progress towards achieving those goals, the scale of the investments vs. the impact terms created, and how the effect contributes to society/economy-wide solutions

Alternative Energy

Carbon Reduction

Circular Economy

Ecosystem Regeneration

Energy Transition

Environmental Impact

Food and Nutrition

GSS Bond

Natural Resources

Regenerative Agriculture

Social Impact

Sustainable Living

Sustainable Planet/World

Waste management

Water Focused

Please note that the final naming of the award category may differ from the list displayed here.

Methodology

Judges will evaluate the fund based on the alignment level with the EU's SFDR Article 8 and 9 regulatory technical standards for sustainable impact. An independent ESG and key sustainability metrics report of the funds submitted by the candidates will be drawn from BlueOnion to demonstrate the walking the talks of the funds' ESG scoring, Risk ranking, and rating, as well as the Paris Agreement's Temperature alignment against their peers.

Judges will evaluate the fund based on the alignment level with the EU's SFDR Article 8 and 9 regulatory technical standards for sustainable impact. An independent ESG and key sustainability metrics report of the funds submitted by the candidates will be drawn from BlueOnion to demonstrate the walking the talks of the funds' ESG scoring, Risk ranking, and rating, as well as the Paris Agreement's Temperature alignment against their peers. You can enter multiple funds for each category by registering under a separate entry.

To enter, the fund best exemplifies your capability, must:

✓ Have a minimum 3-year track record (for Thematic Awards)
✓ Have a minimum 1-year track record (for Sustainability Awards)

✓ Have an ISIN code

✓ Must provide a prospectus or fact sheet

You can submit more than one fund to each category by entering the fund into a separate entry. The strategies presented do not require authorization of funds in the jurisdiction of competition. It can be a UCITS, SICAV, etc..…

The assessment period is from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024.
The strategy with the highest final score in its peer group wins the Best-in-Class award. Up to two Outstanding Achiever awards will be given to Strategies within a 5% margin below the Best-in-Class.
3 Steps to the Title

Step 1 – Decide which investment strategies you would like to pursue.

Step 2 – Fill out the Multiple-Choice Questionnaire for each entered category. Due to the increasing number of entries each year, we can no longer offer each fund an opportunity to the Gatekeeper Forum. To present the best candidates to the judges, those who have met the qualifying threshold will be shortlisted to enter the Gatekeeper Forum. These shortlisted candidates are selected based on the quality of the answers provided in the questionnaire.

Step 3 – Attend the Gatekeeper Forum, where judges will rate their interviews with the PM/CIO based on the specified criteria for each type of award. This is a subjective process, and the judges will be provided with the submissions, as well as the independent financial performance reporting from Morningstar and the sustainability performance from BlueOnion. The forum is highly curated, and only the PM, CIO, or Product Specialists are invited to meet the Senior Gatekeepers in person. During the 30-minute session, 3-5 jurors will ask in-depth questions along the five critical pillars to gain a deeper understanding of team practices. Jurors assigned to a particular peer group will score based on their experience with the fund house and team, as well as the evidence presented.
Submitting Materials for Multiple Regions

If you are entering the same category for more than one region, you may use the same information, documents, and flagship fund across all the areas. For example, you've entered your global fixed-income strategy for Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. You may use the same information for all three regions. You would still need to complete the submission for each area separately. Submit all the answers and documents for the first region, then input the related submission ID for the other areas.

Submitting Materials for Multiple Strategies

Separate groups of jurors will evaluate different product types, so please make sure there is one submission per strategy. Please submit separate entries for each strategy, except Pillar 5-Corporate Strength (only need to submit this once for all entries). DO NOT send one request to represent different strategies.

Merging Categories

To ensure the quality of the awards, categories with less than three funds participating may be incorporated into a larger category of the same kind without prior notice.

Awards Categories and Criteria

Sustainability Awards

FOR ACTIVE AND PASSIVE MANAGERS

This award recognizes investment houses that excel in managing climate-related risks effectively, engaging with stakeholders, and maintaining transparency in reporting. The winner will demonstrate a strong commitment to integrating climate resilience into their investment strategies, ensuring sustainable long-term performance.

Judges will be looking at the approaches of the firm to managing climate-related risks and opportunities:

The fund demonstrates a robust approach to integrating physical and transition climate risks into investment decisions, supported by tools like scenario analysis.

The fund actively engages with investee companies to promote climate resilience, encouraging practices such as setting science-based targets and adopting renewable energy solutions.

The fund manager utilizes proxy voting to support climate-related shareholder proposals, including emissions reduction targets and enhanced climate risk disclosures.

The fund measures, discloses, and demonstrates progress in reducing its carbon intensity, with a clear plan toward net-zero emissions.

The fund prioritizes investments in companies and projects that contributes to climate resilience, including renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and green infrastructure.

The fund employs a clear strategy for managing exposure to high-risk sectors, such as fossil fuels, and demonstrates a preference for companies with credible transition plans.

The fund provides detailed, accessible, and transparent reporting on climate-related risks, opportunities, and its alignment with climate resilience goals.

The fund utilizes advanced ESG and climate risk analytics to identify opportunities and mitigate risks, demonstrating data-driven decision-making.

Conduct scenario analysis to assess resilience under different climate futures. Include pathways aligned with the Paris Agreement, such as the 1.5°C and 2°C scenarios. Disclose the financial and operational impacts of these scenarios.

The fund participates in investor coalitions and initiatives such as Climate Action 100+ or the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative to promote systemic change and industry-wide climate resilience.

*BlueOnion is Benchmark's disruptive fund research platform hosting over 300,000 funds, ETFs, and Bonds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score.

www.blueonion.today
FOR ACTIVE AND PASSIVE MANAGERS

The Best ESG Integration Award recognizes investment management companiesfund houses that demonstrate commitments to integrate ESG into their investment decision-making throughout the investment process for the entire suites of their products and investment activities. It reinforces ESG's role in Long-Term Value Creation.

Categories available for pitching:

Best Equity ESG Integration

Best Fixed Income ESG Integration

Best Multi-Assets ESG Integration

Judges will be looking for qualities in the:

Systematic approach: innovative approaches to applying environmental, social, and governance (ESG) analysis to the funds being managed across the board, despite the sectors, countries, and asset classes

Alignment level with the EU's SFDR Article 8 regulatory technical standard for ESG integration

Buy-in of the team and implementation: how multiple units come to a consensus for the performance across the board

Disclosure: disclosed policies and procedures for integrating ESG information and metrics into the investment process communicated to investee companies

Execution: resources, constraints, and timeline management

Outcomes: How are results measured?

Judges will also evaluate the fund based on the alignment level with the EU's SFDR Article 8 regulatory technical standard for ESG integration.

An independent ESG and critical sustainability metrics report of the funds submitted by the candidates will be drawn from BlueOnion* to demonstrate the walking the talks of the funds' ESG scoring, Risk ranking, and rating, as well as the Paris Agreement's Temperature alignment against their peers.

*BlueOnion is Benchmark's disruptive fund research platform hosting over 300,000 funds, ETFs, and Bonds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score.

www.blueonion.today
FOR ACTIVE MANAGERS

This award recognizes the fund houses that excel in facilitating the transition to a more sustainable economy by aligning their investment strategies with the EU Taxonomy. The winner will demonstrate a strong commitment to supporting companies in achieving environmentally sustainable activities as defined by the EU Taxonomy.

Judges will be looking for evidence of how the manager ensures that investee companies are making valid transitions under the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities by implementing robust systems to monitor, verify, and engage with those companies. Judges will be looking at qualities including:

How well does the fund house align its investment strategies with the EU Taxonomy objectives in Climate Change Mitigation (CCM) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) ?

Quality of reporting on sustainability performance and alignment with EU Taxonomy.

Evidence of active stewardship and engagement with investee companies to promote sustainable practices through proxy voting and advocacy

Verifying transition progress and seeking evidence of investees' use of independent auditors, promoting target setting, such as through the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), and requesting data-backed sustainability reports.

Monitor the investee's CapEx and Transition metrics by focusing on their transition CapEx plans to improve energy efficiency, or adopt renewable energy as part of the transition

Multiple funds of the candidates will be drawn randomly from BlueOnion* to demonstrate walking the talks of the fund houses’ ESG, GC, and Temperature performances against their peers.

*BlueOnion is Benchmark's disruptive fund research platform hosting over 300,000 funds, ETFs, and Bonds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score.

www.blueonion.today
FOR ACTIVE MANAGERS

This award recognizes fund houses putting the welfare of the beneficiaries at the forefront. This award is given to the fund houses that embrace Responsible Investing and practice Active Ownership and integrate ESG into their ownership policies and practices while driving positive real-world goals. Apart from illustrating their collaborative engagement initiatives with the investees, they prioritize outcomes at the society/economy-wide scales, such as addressing climate change and corruption, rather than purely focusing on pure risks and returns of the holdings in the portfolio.

The entrant must submit it’s PRI transparency and PRI assessment reports.

Judges will be looking for qualities in:

The foundation of the practical stewardship principles

Ongoing development and implementation of the stewardship policies

Monitoring and assessment techniques of investee companies

The collaboration goals and engagement principles with investee companies and investors

How voting rights are exercised

How ESG is promoted as long-term value creation

Level of transparency, disclosure, and reporting

Multiple funds of the candidates will be drawn randomly from BlueOnion* to demonstrate the walking the talks of the fund houses’ ESG, GC, and Temperature performances against their peers.

*BlueOnion is Benchmark's disruptive fund research platform hosting over 300,000 funds, ETFs, and Bonds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score.

www.blueonion.today
FOR PASSIVE MANAGERS

This award recognizes fund houses that have successfully invested in initiatives aimed at reducing emissions, promoting sustainable practices, and contributing to a low-carbon economy. The focus is on innovative investment strategies and approaches that support emission reduction goals, aligning with global sustainability objectives.

Judges will be looking for qualities in:

The ETF clearly maps its strategy to specific SDGs by carefully selecting and tracking indexes designed to promote sustainability and contribute to the SDGs.

The ETF addresses key SDG themes like climate action or social equity.

The manager’s engagement with companies in the portfolio to promote alignment with SDGs. This includes direct dialogue with corporate leadership to encourage sustainable practices and improvements.

Managers focus engagements on areas relevant to the SDGs, such as reducing carbon emissions, improving access to clean water, or adopting ethical labor practices.

Engagements should lead to measurable progress, such as a company adopting net-zero goals (SDG 13) or implementing robust diversity policies (SDG 5).

ETF managers maintain ongoing engagement with investee companies, tracking progress over time and revisiting discussions to ensure commitments are being met.

Voting supports SDG-aligned resolutions and policies, such as voting against board members or corporate actions that conflict with SDG principles, such as excessive emissions, poor governance, or human rights violations.

Participation in global initiatives like UN PRI or Climate Action 100+.

Regular, detailed reporting on engagements and SDG impact and align the portfolio metrics with SDG objectives, such as taxonomy-aligned revenue or CapEx under the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).

The ETF provides measurable outcomes for SDG contributions with quantifiable outcomes to demonstrate their contributions, such as tons of CO2 emissions reduced (SDG 13), renewable energy capacity added (SDG 7), or gender diversity improvements (SDG 5).

Multiple funds of the candidates will be drawn randomly from BlueOnion* to demonstrate the walking the talks of the fund houses’ ESG, GC, and Temperature performances against their peers.

*BlueOnion is Benchmark's disruptive fund research platform hosting over 300,000 funds, ETFs, and Bonds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score.

www.blueonion.today
FOR ACTIVE AND PASSIVE MANAGERS

The Best Disclosure Award recognizes fund houses that demonstrate commitment to disclosing the firm's and their investment portfolios' climate-related financial risks and how their existing processes support their investment decisions.

Judges will also evaluate the house based on the level of disclosure under the Sustainability guideline of the four pillars of Governance, Strategy, Goals & Metrics, and Risk Management, and the other 11 metrics associated with the four pillars.

Judges will be looking for qualities in the:

Sustainability Report from the last reporting cycle

Additional voluntary disclosures beyond regulatory requirement

Percentage of companies in the constituents that are aligned with the disclosures of the four pillars and 11 topics and their qualities of disclosure

Policies and procedures disclosed for strategies tackling physical and transition risks described in the reporting, and the goals and metrics set for achievement

BlueOnion* will provide an independent Sustainability alignment report for the fund to assist the jurors with the assessment. The information will reveal the underlying companies of the constituents that are aligned with the disclosure requirement based on five levels: Basic, Foundation, Core, Enhanced, and Unaligned.

*BlueOnion is Benchmark's disruptive fund research platform hosting over 300,000 funds, ETFs, and Bonds with sustainability data, including ESG, Global Compact (GC), and Temperature Score.

www.blueonion.today

Awards Categories and Criteria

Thematic Awards

Our thematic categories for both active and passive strategies are targeted at positively impacting the world while making respectable risk-adjusted returns. Judges will look for your competitive proposition on the impact investment negative and positive impact, the progress towards achieving those goals, the scale of the investments vs. the impact terms created, and how the effect contributes to society/economy-wide solutions.

Climate
Water
Environment
Social Development
Sustainable Involvement