ESG

ESG is a top priority within the asset management industry with GPs prioritising a focus on measuring and improving metrics across their portfolios.

For a number of years we have recognised the importance of environmental, social and governance factors, and are committed to enhancing our decision making and investment management. This not only ensures we / our portfolio companies operate in the right way and positively impact our wider surroundings, but also in driving value for our investors.

NVM operates an ESG policy guided by five key pillars which help to inform our own decision-making processes and provides a framework for our portfolio companies to act in a responsible manner:

• Environment – minimising and managing environmental impacts
• People – investing in and developing employees
• Ethics – operating to the highest ethical standards
• Governance – working to the highest standards of corporate governance
• Community – making a positive contribution to the communities in which they operate.

Before making any investment decision we assess our potential investments against these criteria.

In addition, we measure the ESG journey of our portfolio companies by asking each of our portfolio companies to carry out the ‘B-Impact Assessment’ – the online assessment tool provided by the B-Lab. This is the first step for companies wishing to seek B-Corp accreditation, and, whilst we recognise that this won’t be appropriate for every company we invest in, it provides a comprehensive external scorecard against which to benchmark our investments.

We are pleased to report that within our portfolio we already have a number of companies that have achieved B-Corp status and we continue to support others where it might be appropriate.