Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Sept. 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) today released its 2024-2025 Stewardship Report, demonstrating continued leadership in driving ESG performance and portfolio outcomes through engagement, proxy voting, and policy dialogue.  

"The past year was marked by significant geopolitical upheaval and economic uncertainty, with some suggesting that ESG is inconsistent with delivering financial returns,” says Jennifer Coulson, BCI's Senior Managing Director and Global Head of ESG. “Our experience managing $295 billion in global assets tells a different story: effective stewardship drives sustainable value for our clients, and is fundamental to our approach.”  

Last year, BCI engaged 176 portfolio companies to address material risks and opportunities, and achieved its objectives or built positive momentum with 34 per cent of those companies. During the most recent proxy season, BCI voted at 2,225 public company meetings in 52 countries.  

Notable engagement successes include completing a multi-year collaborative engagement with Teck Resources on climate risk, protecting minority shareholder interests during the acquisition of Atacadao SA, and contributing to the broader governance reform movement in South Korea that led to the country’s landmark Commercial Act amendments. Additionally, BCI's position on stronger sustainability disclosures to support investor decisions continues to yield results. More than 35 jurisdictions covering 40 per cent of global market capitalization have now incorporated the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) standards.1  

This year’s report also introduces BCI’s updated ESG engagement priorities – physical and transition climate change risk, responsible AI, and human capital management – which reflect the areas expected to have the greatest impact on investment performance in the coming years.  

"As an active, long-term investor, BCI has a responsibility to help position our portfolio for the risks and opportunities ahead," adds Coulson. "Every engagement, every vote, and every policy submission is ultimately about protecting and growing the assets entrusted to us by our clients." 

2024-2025 Stewardship Highlights: 

• Emphasizing governance: BCI voted against or withheld our vote from 32 per cent or nearly 4,000 board directors across our global equities portfolio for reasons including insufficient independence, lack of board diversity, and problematic compensation practices. We pursued 56 engagements on corporate governance, reinforcing our foundational expectations and supporting board and management accountability.  

• Managing climate risk: BCI continued to vote against board directors for lack of climate risk oversight and disclosure, and pursued 139 climate engagements in the energy, utilities, and financial sectors. Notably, we completed a seven-year engagement with Teck Resources that culminated in the company’s removal from the Climate Action 100+ target list based on its progress. 

• Expanding influence in Asia: BCI deepened engagement in prominent Asian markets, including Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand. We cast votes at nearly 750 annual meetings in the Asia-Pacific region and engaged with companies and policymakers alongside investor coalitions like the Asian Corporate Governance Association to raise market standards. 

• Creating value in private markets: BCI engaged 16 private portfolio companies to strengthen alignment with our ESG expectations and support sustainability initiatives designed to deliver value at exit. We hosted an inaugural Private Equity ESG Value Creation Conference in New York, bringing together nearly 50 investment partners and companies to demonstrate the links between ESG and financial performance.  

As a core aspect of BCI’s ESG strategy, this stewardship reporting complements the ESG and climate-related disclosures available in our 2024-2025 Corporate Annual Report. 

Read the 2024-2025 Stewardship Report on BCI.ca.  

About BCI 

BCI is one of Canada's largest institutional investors, managing C$295 billion in gross assets on behalf of 32 public sector and institutional clients as of March 31, 2025. For 25 years, BCI has partnered with its clients to help deliver on their commitments and create enduring value in British Columbia and beyond. From securing pensions to supporting communities, it's investing that matters.  

Headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia, with teams in Vancouver, New York, London, and Mumbai, BCI puts patient capital to work across public and private markets globally.  

Learn more on BCI.ca or connect on LinkedIn.   

1 IFRS Foundation Annual Report 2024 

Olga Petrycki
BCI - British Columbia Investment Management Corp
+1 778 410 7100
media@bci.ca