We think about stewardship broadly—indeed, you will see us use the term “raise the future” to refer to how we view our purpose for our clients, colleagues and communities. The idea behind this reflection of our purpose is the deep sense of responsibility we feel to help create a better and more sustainable future. At its essence, stewardship at Brown Advisory looks forward and requires us to take actions today to ensure that tomorrow is better.
As investors, we believe we can drive performance by investing in companies and issuers that are contributing to building that sustainable future. In all of our investment strategies, we will assess any consideration that may help us gain a deeper understanding of a company or issuer’s risks and opportunities. In our sustainable investment strategies, these considerations include an emphasis on the risks and opportunities that arise from the natural resource, climate, human capital and governance effects on the securities in which we invest, and hence on their investment returns.
As advisors, we help clients articulate what matters most to them in order to best incorporate their objectives for philanthropy, community engagement, sustainability and impact within their portfolios. As a business, we partner with for-profit and charitable purpose-driven organisations. As a firm, we make strategic contributions to certain charities and offset our emissions to achieve carbon neutrality. As a collection of colleagues, we bring our authentic selves to work every day in service to our clients, and we donate our time and capital to support the communities that sustain us and our families.
To do this well, we must continue to intentionally recruit and elevate colleagues who share these values. Indeed, one of our criteria for promotion to Principal and Partner is demonstrating service to and leadership in the community. We are deeply humbled to even consider that our firm’s breadth and depth give our colleagues a platform to demonstrate stewardship in their communities.
As always, we are appreciative of the Financial Reporting Council’s commitment to promoting stewardship in our industry. We are proud of the work we are doing for clients—a group of inspiring individuals, families and organisations—so that they may be meaningful stewards for the future.