Responsible investment

Responsible investment, including environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations, is taken into account in the investment policies and procedures of the Summer KiwiSaver scheme.

Responsible Investment Policy

Our Responsible Investment Policy forms part of the Summer Statement of Investment Policy and Objectives (SIPO), which can be found here.

The Summer Responsible Investment Policy is split into three parts.

1. Screening of investment products

Before Summer’s Investment Manager, Octagon Asset Management (Octagon) makes a direct investment into a financial product (as opposed to an indirect investment – see ‘Investments into unrelated underlying funds’ below) the fund we will use screening tools provided by MSCI, as described in MSCI’s Business Involvement Screening Research Methodology dated August 2025, to identify whether the relevant entity derives revenue from any of the following activities:

• The production of whole weapon systems, delivery platforms or components of cluster munitions; production of whole weapon systems or components of landmines and biological or chemical weapons; production of depleted uranium weapons, blinding laser weapons, incendiary weapons or weapons with non-detectable fragments (or is involved indirectly through ownership ties to companies involved in such products);
• The production of nuclear weapons, exclusive and dual-use delivery platforms capable of delivering such products, intended and dual-use components of such products, services provided for such products (or is involved indirectly through ownership ties to companies involved in such products or services);
• The production of tobacco products (including traditional and alternative tobacco smoking products);
• The manufacture or sale of automatic or semi--automatic weapons intended for civilian use.

Except as expressly noted, the screening we apply does not extend to the sale or distribution of these products. For example, we exclude tobacco manufacturers but not retailers who sell tobacco products e.g. supermarkets.

If the screening process identifies that a company derives revenues of 5% or more from the activities listed above, then no investment is made. This is done for moral and ethical reasons, i.e. we do not wish to be associated with these activities. If the Investment Manager makes a direct investment and the screening process subsequently identifies that the relevant entity derives revenues of 5% or more from one of the activities listed above, the investment will be sold in a reasonable timeframe taking into account the particular circumstances, market conditions, and the duty to act in the best interest of investors. The Investment Manager will apply the screening check against the funds’ direct investments at least monthly.

Where we’ve identified companies through our exclusion screening process we will place the names of these companies on an exclusion list which will be made available and updated on our website every six months.

2. Consideration of ESG factors

For directly held equities, listed property and fixed interest securities and cash and cash equivalents, the Investment Manager uses its ESG Risk Assessment framework to help identify the material ESG risks and opportunities associated with our investments.

This ESG Risk Assessment utilises data and research from various sources including Forsyth Barr’s Carbon and ESG (CESG) ratings and related methodology, LSEG Workspace and MSCI controversy data, as well as information from other sources and information made available in the public domain.

The Investment Manager collates information from the sources listed above in order to perform its qualitative assessment of the ESG risks and opportunities. The Investment Manager then determines the extent to which these risks and opportunities are considered in its investment decision making. However, ESG factors may not be determinative of the Investment Manager’s investment decisions, and Investment Manager may include investments that have less favourable ESG ratings.

Forsyth Barr’s CESG ratings and methodology are available on its website - www.forsythbarr.co.nz/corporate-news-events/c[1]and-esg-ratings-report-2024/.

Limitation: as at the date of this SIPO Forsyth Barr’s CESG methodology only covers certain NZX listed issuers. Where we hold an investment in a NZX listed issuer not covered by Forsyth Barr’s CESG ratings and / or an issuer listed on another exchange, we will source the necessary information from those sources listed above. In addition, where we invest into an underlying scheme that we don’t manage, the external investment manager does not apply our ESG Risk Assessment to its investment decision-making.

3. Controversies

From time to time unexpected information about the companies we invest in may become available. If Octagon determines further investigation of the unexpectedly disclosed information is warranted, the Investment Manager’s Investment Committee will apply the following steps to determine what response and actions, if any, should be undertaken:

    1. The Chair will direct the Investment Manager’s ESG team to investigate further by applying the Investment Manager’s ESG Risk Assessment methodology detailed above and present the information and its assessment to the Investment Committee.

    2. The Investment Committee will consider the information provided by the Investment Manager’s ESG team and determine whether the issuer’s activities are negatively flagged and / or inconsistent with a positive assessment under the assessment criteria of the Investment Manager’s ESG Risk Assessment.

    3. The Investment Committee will determine an appropriate action which may be

1. 1. to note for internal reference only,
   2. to note and partially or fully sell the relevant financial products,
   3. to undertake (1) and advise investors via its website and / or via other media,
   4. to undertake (2) and update investors via its website and / or via other media

    4. If partial or full divestment is to occur the investment will be sold in a reasonable timeframe taking into account the particular circumstances, market conditions, and the duty to act in the best interest of investors.

A copy of the Octagon Investment Committee Charter, detailing all of the committee’s responsibilities and activities is available on the Octagon website. 

Investments into unrelated underlying funds

Before the Scheme invests into an underlying managed investment scheme that we do not directly manage, Octagon will consider the responsible investment framework for that scheme. Octagon will seek to invest in underlying schemes with responsible investment frameworks comparable to the Scheme, where it can do that without compromising the Scheme’s other investment objectives.

At the end of each quarter, Summer will make available on our website a list of any of the underlying scheme’s direct investments (as are available to the Investment Manager) that appear on the exclusions list as determined by Octagon’s negative screening activities.

As at 30 June 2025 the Summer KiwiSaver scheme had investments in the Hunter Global Fixed Interest Fund.

Hunter Global Fixed Interest is a fund offered by Harbour Asset Management. Harbour Asset Management as the Manager of the Hunter Global Fixed Interest Fund has appointed PIMCO Australia (PIMCO) as the fund’s Investment Manager.

At that date, the Hunter Global Fixed Interest Fund had financial exposures to entities associated with Airbus SE, Altria Group Inc., BAE Systems PLC, BAT International Finance PLC, The Boeing Company, General Electric Company, Imperial Brands Finance PLC, Honeywell International Incorporated, Leonardo SPA, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation, Rolls-Royce Holdings and RTX Corporation; companies that participated in activities prohibited by our Negative Screening process and that subsequently appear on our Exclusion list (available here).

The securities issued by the companies detailed above were not specifically targeted for investment by PIMCO but are the consequence of financial hedging activities undertaken by PIMCO when managing the credit risk (the risk of default) within the funds’ portfolios of investments.

*calculated as the net exposure (basis market value) of each Summer fund to the securities of companies on Octagon’s exclusion list.

Voting Policy

Summer will exercise its voting power in relation to any of the Scheme’s assets when we consider that it is in the best interests of investors to do so. Decisions as to whether and how to vote will be made on a case by case basis by Octagon. Octagon has contracted with Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), the world's leading provider of corporate governance and responsible investment solutions to provide proxy research, voting and reporting.

Previous Responsible Investment Policy

This responsible investment policy updates and replaces the prior investment policy. Prior to 18 October, 2023 Summer made our responsible investment assessments based on the framework made available by the NZ Super Fund.

This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any financial product and does not take your personal circumstances into account.  We have prepared this web page in good faith based on information obtained from other sources, but we do not guarantee the accuracy of that information. We do not make any representation or warranty (express or implied) that this web page is accurate, complete, or current and to the maximum extent permitted by law disclaim any liability for loss which may be incurred by any person relying on this web page. We recommend you take financial advice before making investment decisions. We may update this page without notice.