UKSIF will this week call on leading companies to assist and encourage their corporate pension funds to support the UK Stewardship Code and implement responsible ownership and investment practices. UKSIF will also say that these plan sponsors should educate employees, customers and suppliers about the value of responsible investment practices.

The call will be made at Friday’s launch of UKSIF’s third biennial “Responsible Business: Sustainable Pension” report on the responsible investment approaches of the UK pension funds of corporate responsibility leaders. The launch is hosted by the National Association of Pension Funds.

Read the full press release.

Read the FTfm coverage.

UKSIF has this week launched the 2011 “Responsible Business: Sustainable Pension” survey to help major UK corporate pension funds learn more about best practice in Responsible Investment (RI) and how trustees are responding to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues and challenges in the practical implementation of RI policies.

The survey is being sent out as part of a biennial study conducted by the UKSIF Sustainable Pensions Project. It builds on earlier surveys in 2007 and 2009 and will enable the pension fund industry to track progress on RI implementation over time.

New questions for 2011 include how pension funds are implementing the UK Stewardship Code and whether trustees have held in-depth discussions on major issues like climate change.

Read the full press release.

With the consultation on a Stewardship Code for Institutional Investors closing today, UKSIF has submitted its comments.

Welcoming the Code, Penny Shepherd MBE, chief executive of UKSIF, said:

“Regulatory demand alone will not be enough. The power to make the Stewardship Code work is in the hands of pension funds and other owners of assets. Quality of stewardship should drive mandates, the way quality of stock picking does.”

Read the consultation response.