Winnipeg-based IGM Financial Inc. (TSX:IGM) has been added to the Jantzi Social Index (JSI), a leading Canadian sustainability index.
IGM is one of Canada‘s largest managers and distributors of mutual funds and other managed asset products, with over $149 billion in total assets under management (AUM). Its activities are carried out principally through Investors Group, Mackenzie Financial Corp. and Investment Planning Counsel.
“IGM’s addition to the JSI is significant for institutional and individual investors who are committed to sustainability,” said Andrea Carlson, IGM’s assistant vice president, corporate responsibility. “By the key measures used in the JSI — environmental, social and governance (ESG) — IGM is demonstrating its leadership in sustainability.”
Launched in 2000, the JSI is a market capitalization-weighted common stock index consisting of 60 Canadian companies that pass a set of broadly based ESG rating criteria.
In creating the JSI, Jantzi Research, now Sustainalytics, set out to create an index which could be used by institutional investors in benchmarking the performance of socially screened portfolios and by financial institutions in developing investment products such as index mutual funds, exchange traded funds, index portfolios, index futures and options.
Carlson said that the addition to the JSI comes as IGM recently enhanced its reporting and introduced a number of initiatives demonstrating the company’s longstanding commitment to sustainability.