2021 Corporate Sustainability Report

Sustainable investing is developing fast, driven by the pandemic and climate change.

Welcome to our first ever Corporate Sustainability Report published alongside our Sustainable Investing Report. At Fidelity International, we are taking action on behalf of our clients and society. We have called on governments to speed up the transition and have committed to net-zero alliances in the run up to the UN climate conference in Glasgow later this year.

But the biggest contribution we can make is through urging our investee companies to decarbonise more quickly, whether via one-to-one interactions or through collaboration with other investors.

We can't ask companies to do things we're not prepared to do ourselves. So we’ve also scaled up ambitions for our own operations in relation to cutting emissions, and in other areas such as promoting diversity and inclusion and supporting local communities.

From a year of existential threat has emerged a desire for a more sustainable world. This is pushing all of us to do more, together, and more swiftly. It’s time to step up.

Fidelity is accelerating its commitment to reduce company-wide operational carbon emissions to net zero to 2030*, 10 years ahead of its previous goal of 2040.

Fidelity’s path to net zero will prioritise the avoidance and reduction of emissions through operational improvements in the energy efficiency of its offices, responsible business travel and the use of renewable energy.

The new goal was set out as part of Fidelity’s  Corporate Sustainability Report and adds to other net-zero initiatives previously announced including:

• A commitment to investing aligned with net-zero emissions on or before 2050 as part of the Net Zero Asset Manager initiative, of which Fidelity is a founding signatory;
• and, a commitment to reducing carbon emissions within FutureWise, Fidelity’s default investment strategy for UK-based pension schemes, to half by 2030, and to becoming net zero by 2050 or before.

In addition to its net-zero target, Fidelity has committed to a range of other sustainability goals for 2024 focusing on the environment, workplace, supply chain and communities. These include:

• Improving our environment: A 25% reduction in energy consumption, 25% waste reduction and 80% increase to recycling rate in comparison to 2019 levels.
• Strengthening our workplace: 35% of global senior management roles to be held by women and 45% of global workforce to be women.
• Buying responsibly from our suppliers: ESG monitoring for 90% of our high-risk suppliers and 95% of tenders to include at least one diverse supplier.
• Creating resilient communities: Year on year increase in employee use of volunteering hours and 200+ charities supported.

Anne Richards, Chief Executive Officer at Fidelity International comments: “The last 18 months of the pandemic has seen us pivot our entire business to allow for working from home across all our 27 locations globally while still delivering on our strategic priorities. What we have learned is that we can be more ambitious and do far more than we ever imagined was possible, even during a pandemic.

“Our aim is to apply that same thinking to the climate challenge and sustainability issues more broadly and I am delighted that we have been able to bring forward our net-zero ambition and progress in a range of other areas from supply chain management to diversity and inclusion.”