Who We Are
Environmental, Social & Governance
Responsible Business
Vermeer Partners believes operating as a responsible business brings benefits to our staff and Partners, our clients and our community. Our responsible business policy is reviewed annually to ensure we continue to manage our business with an ethical approach and the utmost integrity.
We recognise the impact of climate change, and we take our responsibility seriously to reduce our carbon footprint. We carefully select manufacturers and partners that share our values, and we promote good working practices to reduce and minimise the effects of environmental damage. Working with a specialist carbon reduction firm, we are assessed and supported towards becoming net-zero carbon. To ensure we minimise our overall carbon impact, we donate to The Woodland Trust the equivalent value of our carbon emissions. This supports their critical work in both maintaining existing trees and woodlands, but also planting new trees across the UK.
We regularly review our approach to purchasing to ensure that, as far as possible, our choices support Fairtrade initiatives and minimise our environmental impact - especially for products which cannot be manufactured or sourced in the UK. Where we can, we buy ‘local’ to both reduce our carbon footprint and support other small, entrepreneurial ventures.
We are accredited by The London Living Wage Foundation which ensures all our staff and our contractors are paid a higher basic wage than current government minimum wage levels. We also pay London Living Wage to all interns and students who spend more than a week at Vermeer Partners, thus ensuring that no intern needs to have private means to support them in gaining work experience.
Responsible Investment & ESG
Responsible investment seeks to incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into our investment decisions and recommendations. This can help identify and understand potential risks and opportunities in the companies we invest in. These might include a company’s impact on climate change, anti-corruption policies or their commitment to broader diversity within their workforce or management.
Some clients seek to incorporate certain ethical, religious and/or sustainable investment criteria into their portfolios that are particularly important to them. These may extend beyond our general responsible investment approach by seeking to exclude particular companies or industry sectors from a portfolio.
We use a third party screening company Ethical Screening to help us exclude companies that profit from tobacco, weapons manufacture etc. It also helps to highlight those companies that demonstrate commitment to achieving the highest standards and are proactive in areas such as corporate ethics, social justice and environmental impact.
Each client has their own ethical criteria and yours will be applied when you meet your Investment Manager. We do not use a one-size-fits-all approach, ensuring that you will not feel obliged to invest in any area that you are not comfortable with.
Responsible Community Engagement
As part of our commitment to the wider community, we support a number of charities via The Vermeer Partners Charitable Trust. Managed by a number of our Investment Directors, our grant making charity seeks to support small organisations where our donations can make a tangible difference to their activities. This typically extends over a number of years such that growing charities can depend on our longer term, predictable funding and we can measure the positive impact of our support.
During the difficult times of the pandemic, our focus remained on smaller, frontline projects. In spring 2022, and in response to the distressing events in the Ukraine and on its borders, we focused our donations on charities working to alleviate the suffering of those affected by the war via the Disasters Emergency Committee and Médecins Sans Frontière. This year we have also continued to support a range of UK organisations including: Martlets Hospice, The Fifth Trust, The Yalda Hakim Foundation, The Starlight Foundation, The Trussell Trust and Admiral Nurses
Our Partners and staff are also fully supported in terms of their own volunteering commitments especially as Trustees and Governors.