Stewardship, With Purpose: By Julie Moret, Global Head of Sustainable Investing and Stewardship

Northern Trust Asset Management is a global investment manager entrusted with more than $1.3 trillion of investor assets.(1) We help investors navigate changing market environments by combining robust capital markets research, expert portfolio construction, and comprehensive risk management to deliver efficient solutions that enable investors to achieve their most important goals. We recognize the level of influence we have as investment stewards, and remain committed to continuing our work in this dynamic and evolving environment.

We focus on the long-term with a dual purpose of protecting and enhancing the assets entrusted to us by our clients. As a global citizen, we have a clear responsibility to contribute to a healthy long-term environment, equitable social structures and wellgoverned companies. The events of the last two years have accentuated how interconnected these issues are. Themes such as climate transition risks and a shift towards a more stakeholder-centric form of capitalism continue to underpin our capital market assumptions.

Explicit within these themes is the incorporation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors which we believe are financially material and strategically relevant. As such, they impact long-term risk-adjusted investment returns. Consistent with our view that investors should be compensated for the risks they take, we believe evaluating ESG criteria enhances our forward-looking view of risks and opportunities. As a leading investment manager with deep experience in ESG integration, we not only actively engage with the companies we are invested in, but also with policy makers, regulators, vendors and index providers to lift ESG standards across the market as a whole.

Ultimately, we believe positive economic and societal change, and financial performance, is best achieved when ESG analysis is combined with active stewardship. Last year we combined our ESG research integration, stewardship and client engagement specialists into a newly integrated team under new leadership. This deliberate action has further enhanced our commitment to effective stewardship and better enabled our ability to serve our aforementioned stakeholders.

(1)Assets under management as of December 31, 2021. For the Northern Trust Asset Management entities included in AUM total, please see disclosure at end of this document.