Active ownership, or “engagement” as we broadly refer to it, is one of three key Responsible Investing (RI) principles around which Nuveen organizes our firm-wide practice. We seek to use our tools as an investor; proxy voting, shareholder proposals and board engagement; to influence company policies and actions. In addition, we partner with stakeholders across the market to establish, set and follow RI best practices. We believe these activities allow us to drive change at our portfolio companies and in the broader market to help us mitigate corporate risks and drive shareholder value, which is in the best interests of our clients.

Details on our key engagement activities:

•         Proxy voting: As part of our fiduciary duty to our clients, we advocate on their behalf as shareholders and investors in portfolio companies. Each investment specialist has their own robust proxy voting process that ensure votes are executed in the best interests of their clients.

•          Dialogue: With in-depth knowledge of investees, we engage in direct and constructive dialogue with CEOs, senior management, boards of directors, tenants and operators as well as other appropriate stakeholders to encourage further ESG disclosure and adoption of best practices. When constructive dialogue does not achieve desired outcomes, we may consider employing a range of tactics to escalate our engagement.

•          Targeted initiatives: We aim to drive measureable outcomes with company, industry, thematic and country-specific initiatives.

•          Market initiatives: We collaborate with peers, interdisciplinary experts and industry stakeholders to create best practices and drive more effective outcomes.

•            Policy influence: We actively help to shape legislation, public policy and global standards related to RI best practices.

The responses to this module includes activities across Nuveen's public equity investment specialists TIAA Investments, Nuveen Quantitative Strategies, Nuveen Asset Management, Winslow Capital Management, NWQ, and Santa Barbara Asset Management. The responses represent activities applied for the majority of equity assets. Specialist-specific activities may be additionally described in the descriptive sections.