Listed equity security exclusions

In general, we believe corporate engagement is more effective than divestment in improving the way companies operate, reducing their environmental impact and increasing transparency. However, we apply some security exclusions for directly held listed equity exposures when investing.

Vision Super only excludes listed equities directly held where engagement is impracticable, where we don’t believe engagement can reduce harm, or where we believe there is a long-term risk to our members’ money. Our exclusions apply to directly held listed equity, given it is impractical to effect this for pooled funds, derivatives or listed pooled vehicles (such as Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)).

The listed equity asset classes are managed with company exclusions related to smoking products, controversial weapons and G8 Education. The smoking products and controversial weapons company exclusions are based on assessments of our ESG service provider.

Refer to the Definitions page for more information on the exclusion categories.

Excluded security list

Vision Super maintains a list of directly held listed equity securities that we consider to be prohibited investments – the Excluded Securities List (ESL). The ESL is reviewed regularly by the Vision Super Responsible Investment (RI) team and Investments team. Using the methodology and definitions of our ESG service provider MSCI we have identified listed equity securities in the excluded categories for smoking products and controversial weapons.  The MSCI methodology can be found here.

The ESL is reviewed at least bi-annually and where new listed equity securities are identified for exclusion we seek to divest our holdings within a reasonable timeframe. The ESL is only available to Vision Super members with positive account balances by contacting member services, as MSCI has requested that access to the list is restricted in this manner.

Carbon exposure

Our exposure to fossil fuels in our directly held listed equities portfolio is managed through carbon intensity limits under our carbon budget framework. refer to our Carbon budget page

Transition period for implementation of ESL and carbon budget

From time to time, it will be necessary for some of our investment managers to transition the portfolios they manage to reflect the ESL and agreed carbon budget, for example where a portfolio has been transferred into Vision Super as part of a merger, or where there is a change in our approach to managing carbon risk.


In these circumstances, we will instruct our managers that they must comply within a nominated transition period. If these circumstances apply, we will provide a notice that this is occurring on our website.

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