The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has said it is considering building out the role of asset owners in Spring, its nature-focussed collaborative engagement initiative, or complementary initiatives.
Spring was launched in June 2024 and focuses on deforestation and land degradation as key drivers for nature loss, and on corporate political engagement practices “as a key lever for practical policy solutions”.
According to a progress report published today, the initiative is endorsed by 241 investors, with 96 of them actively participating in engagements with companies.
As of 1 January this year, the total endorser and participant base consisted of 69 asset owners, 154 investment managers and 18 service providers.
Asset owners represent 10% of endorsers and 4% of participants.
The PRI said that a strong presence of asset owners among the endorser base “clearly signals their support for the initiative”.
It explained that it was considering building out the role of asset owners because they are “at the heart of the investment chain and play a crucial role in system-level stewardship”.
“Collaborative initiatives like Spring provide opportunities for asset owners to signal the importance of nature stewardship, for example by endorsing Spring, and to enhance their insights and understanding of the engagement activities conducted on their behalf, for example through a collaborative role,” it added.
A PRI spokesperson told IPE that PRI was considering various options for potential strategic adjustments to Spring but had not made any final decisions yet.
With regard to the option of building out the role of asset owners, she said “the idea is to facilitate asset owners to contribute to the success of the initiative, even if they do not actively engage with focus companies themselves”.
This could be by providing signals to their external managers that company engagement is needed; and enhancing insights of the engagement conducted on their behalf.
Another adjustment that PRI is considering for Spring is deepening engagements with companies that operate in transition mineral supply chains.
Responsible political engagement
What has been decided, however, according to the progress report, is that Spring will remove six companies from its focus list due to a lack of investor leads as well as facilitate capacity-building on responsible political engagement for participants.
It said a participant survey and other feedback indicated that responsible political engagement was a “complex and novel topic” that many investors felt uncomfortable engaging on with companies due to a lack of expertise, with data availability also seen as hampering effective investor action.
Tim Steinweg, head of stewardship for nature at the PRI, said investors and companies were building the foundations to address the financial materiality of nature loss while deforestation and other nature impacts continued across the world, threatening long-term value creation.
“Spring has laid the groundwork from which investors can leverage their stewardship activities to effectively address this systemic risk, at a point in time when we cannot afford to lose traction. We look forward to seeing how investors develop their engagement to accelerate faster company progress and meaningful real‑world impacts.”
