Become an investor signatory

Our research shows that health poses a blind spot to investors. As it stands, the impact of companies on people’s health is contributing to lives being cut short and exposing assets to unnecessary financial risk. That’s why we’re establishing the Long-term Investors in People’s Health (LIPH) initiative. A global initiative which will support investors to give health greater priority in their work.

LIPH will highlight leading practice, deliver data and insights to investors, provide opportunities for collaborative engagement, and work with investors to define metrics and improve the data and reporting on this topic. Leading this agenda will be a global alliance of investor signatories.

ShareAction are leading LIPH with support and input from a range of partners, including our funders Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation and The Health Foundation.

• Signatories will gain a competitive advantage with access to early insight and support to mitigate health-related risks within their portfolios and capital allocation strategies. This will include best practice guidance, case studies, data, research, company benchmarking and briefings.
• Signatories will get support with company engagement on health-related risks and opportunities. This will include being invited to join coalition working groups on specific health-related topics like nutrition, workplace health or air quality.
• Signatories will get support to collaborate to drive greater disclosure of health metrics across relevant industries.
• Signatories will gain a competitive advantage from being a leader and having made a commitment to prioritise health – a social engagement theme gaining fast momentum.
• Signatories will have the opportunity to learn from one another, as well as have dialogue with other influential asset owners and managers.
• Signatories will be able to feed into the direction of travel of the LIPH programme, including the sectoral focus of our corporate engagement.

1. We will work toward understanding and then incorporating health as a systemic risk into investment analysis and decision-making processes.
2. We will be active owners by engaging with companies on health-related risks and supporting specific, recommended engagement mechanisms with companies where appropriate. This may include use of direct engagement, collaborative engagement, and proxy voting.
3. We will seek appropriate corporate disclosure of relevant policies and practices relating to worker health, consumer health and community health.
4. We will promote acceptance and share learnings about how health can be integrated into stewardship practices across the investment industry. This may be through public-facing communications, through direct dialogue with peers or through participation in signatory meetings and events.
5. We will work together with other signatories to enhance our collective effectiveness in implementing these principles by attending signatory group meetings, sharing case studies, learnings and examples of best practice.
6. We will work toward enhanced reporting on the impact of our investments and active ownership on health in our own regular reporting.

• Working together with other owners and managers to enhance the collective impact of their assets in relation to people’s health – sharing learnings, reporting progress, and using their influence to accelerate impact across the investment sector.
• Engaging their asset managers on health as a systemic risk, encouraging them to join the signatory group, and to make progress on the principles above (emphasising principle 1). This may include formally incorporating health within fund manager mandates.
• Where asset owners undertake direct engagement with companies, they also commit to principles 2 and 3, above.

If your organisation wishes to join the LIPH signatory group, you should:

• Agree to the above principles;
• Complete a short survey which we will send, including asking for a key contact or contacts at your organisation for us to liaise with on matters relating to the programme;
• Agree to allow ShareAction to publish your organisation's name and logo on our website.