1. Introduction:
Darshita Gillies: Hello, Roger! Let’s start with your journey. Can you tell us about how you got into responsible investing & sustainability?
Roger Lewis: Thank you! I’ve been in sustainability and responsible investing for over ten years now, but it wasn’t where I started. My career began on the J.P. Morgan Graduate Programme, dealing derivatives—completely unrelated to sustainability. It was the height of the financial crisis, and the culture was all about high bonuses and maximising returns. I quickly realised that wasn’t what motivated me.
About 10 years ago, I began tracking corporate governance and then carbon accounting, which aligned with my university studies in meteorology and climate change. At Aviva Investors, I worked on ESG in real assets and became deeply involved in carbon accounting for buildings and infrastructure assets. It’s been a long journey, but one that’s grown in relevance and importance over time.
2. Philosophy and Approach for Responsible Investing:
Darshita Gillies: What is Downing’s philosophy and approach to responsible investing and sustainability?
Roger Lewis: At Downing, we’ve structured our approach around three pillars: corporate governance, natural capital, and human capital. Governance has always been a strength of ours in private and listed equity investments. We look at shareholder rights, board effectiveness, and management quality.
Natural capital is critical, especially around climate change, emissions, and biodiversity. For example, hydropower impacts river ecosystems, so we assess its biodiversity implications and how to mitigate for example with waterways for fish to avoid the turbines. Human capital focuses on workplace diversity, equity, and how employees feel about working in those companies.
We surround these pillars with active ownership—thoughtful engagement dialogue, informed voting, and transparent reporting. This framework helps us empower our investees to drive their own change.
3. Innovation and Differentiation:
Darshita Gillies: Downing is known for innovation. How do you stand out in responsible investing?
Roger Lewis: Innovation is about practicality for us. We’ve developed a proprietary ESG scorecard with 75 questions under our three pillars. It’s universal, so whether it’s a care home, a hydropower plant, or shares in Glencore, the same approach applies.
We also use this scorecard to identify engagement areas before we invest. For instance, when analysing Porsche, we flagged gaps in their Scope 3 emissions reporting. This pre-investment identification helps us target impactful engagements where we wrote to the company to better understand their emissions reporting.
4. Integration of ESG Factors & Responsible Investing:
Darshita Gillies: How do you integrate ESG factors into investment decisions?
Roger Lewis: ESG factors are embedded in our investment process. We begin with a quick screening for red flags—like poor governance, controversies or lack of emissions reporting. This helps us decide whether to proceed further with the investment thesis
Detailed analysis comes next. Our scorecard measures ESG performance across governance, natural capital, and human capital. Companies are benchmarked against peers, and we identify areas for future engagement. It’s a systematic yet adaptable approach that ensures ESG considerations are integral to decision-making.
5. Engagement and Collaboration:
Darshita Gillies: How does Downing engage with portfolio companies, and do you see collaboration as a key driver for sustainability?
Roger Lewis: Engagement is central to our philosophy. We approach it as a partnership—empowering companies to achieve positive change rather than dictating actions. For instance, we’ve helped companies with their TCFD disclosures and ESG policies, essentially acting as a free sustainability consultant to them.
Collaboration is also vital. We work with initiatives including Climate Action 100+ and Nature Action 100 to amplify our impact. Smaller asset managers like us may hold less than 1% of a company’s shares, so collective efforts are essential for change.
6. Impact and Outcomes:
Darshita Gillies: Could you share some success stories from your engagements?
Roger Lewis: A few examples come to mind. For small caps, like a digital marketing platform, getting them to start reporting emissions—Scope 1 and 2—was a significant step.
We also engaged with Schneider Electric for voting on their climate transition plan. After analysing their disclosures and plans and cash flows for decarbonizing, we provided detailed feedback and ultimately supported their plan with a shareholder vote. They appreciated the constructive dialogue.
7. Challenges and Opportunities in Responsible Investing:
Darshita Gillies: What are the biggest challenges and opportunities in responsible investing today?
Roger Lewis: Regulatory evolution is a challenge, particularly with frameworks like the FCA’s rules on anti-greenwashing and labelling. Also quickly evolving are standards and frameworks for action, like TNFD and FRC’s revised stewardship code. Engagement fatigue is another issue—companies feel overwhelmed by the volume of investor requests, often on the same subject.
On the flip side, biodiversity is an emerging opportunity, especially with new rules on net gain and a new type of credit as an instrument with a financial value. Younger generations are also driving sustainability demand, which gives me hope for the future.
8. Overcoming Resource Constraints:
Darshita Gillies: What strategies do smaller asset managers like Downing use to overcome resource limitations while delivering impactful stewardship outcomes?
Roger Lewis: Engagement prioritisation helps. There is a finite resource between investment and ESG teams to send letters or have meetings or investigate votes. So clearly scoring which companies and which subjects to use this resource on can help. Every six months, we screen for factors like low ESG scores, controversies, actions due, voted against; the higher the score, the greater the need to engage.
I’ve seen some peers use an open door policy to engagement. Anyone that has an interest in the dialogue is welcome to join it, whether that’s fund managers for investment decisions, sales teams to explain the holding to clients, or other internal teams that are involved with the holding. Though we’ve not done this yet, it’s certainly part of collaboration and transparency, and something I’d be happy to include as well.
9. Using Maanch Engagement Tracker:
Darshita Gillies: How has using the Maanch – Engagement Tracker supported Downing?
Roger Lewis: Bringing structure to content that is logged, having everything in one place (the ability to add results and scores from ESG research will help here), institutional learning and memory, and – my favourite – dates for when actions are due, so there is accountability. Surely no-one can track so many dialogues and their status on spreadsheets, lists or, worst of all, in their heads!
10. Policy Advocacy:
Darshita Gillies: How does Downing approach policy advocacy, and why is it important?
Roger Lewis: Policy advocacy is essential. It ensures well-functioning markets and systemic sustainability. We engage through groups like the IIGCC and ICGN, contributing to consultations and roundtables on regulations such as biodiversity credits and real estate investing.
It’s also a form of engagement. Regulators value investor input and our perspectives, and it’s an opportunity to influence rules that align with our sustainability goals ahead of having to comply with them in future. However it is important to remember is this is very different to company engagement.
11. Thoughts on UK Stewardship Code:
Darshita Gillies: What are your thoughts on the UK Stewardship Code review?
Roger Lewis: The code is absolutely credible and well-regarded globally, and shows the UK’s leadership in stewardship by being one of the first countries to have a national code – just like with corporate governance. I think it’s essential to maintain its high standards.
That said, reporting should balance transparency with practicality. For example, annual reports are helpful for long-term engagement, but excessive demands can detract from meaningful interactions with companies.
12. Future Vision for Responsible Investing:
Darshita Gillies: What’s your vision for the future of responsible investing?
Roger Lewis: The term “ESG” may not survive, but the sector is maturing. I see greater focus on nature, climate change, and long-term systemic outcomes.
The concepts that “ESG” covers like future people and climatic systems later this century are not going anywhere. And I’m optimistic about the next generation. Young people care deeply about sustainability, and as they move into leadership roles, their values will shape the future of investing.
Darshita Gillies: Thank you, Roger, for sharing these insights. It’s been a fascinating conversation!
Roger Lewis: Thank you—it’s been a pleasure!
Maanch – Stewardship Spotlight Series
💡 “Stewardship Spotlight” is an exclusive interview series featuring diverse stakeholders across the investment ecosystem. Through this initiative, we aim to showcase thought leadership, innovative strategies, and best practices in ESG and stewardship across the investment sector.
🌟 Our first interview of the series highlights Roger Lewis‘s fantastic work on Responsible Investing at Downing.
📍 If you would like to share your insights or work on Stewardship, please get in touch with info@maanch.com
