Our Managing Partner on Sustainability

Now is a time of transformation for BBH — it’s a time to reimagine our future. Throughout our long history and today, our values as a firm and as individuals, our commitment to sustainability, and our desire to positively impact our clients, our people, and our communities remain at the center of what we do.



In this report, our third annual, we detail the progress we’ve made in our ten sustainability focus areas during a time that we could hardly have imagined five years ago when our Sustainable BBH program was created. 2021 was a complicated year—for our firm, for each BBHer, for the environment around us, and for the safety of citizens and democracies across the globe. The global COVID-19 pandemic, now transitioning to endemic, and with it a second year of BBHers working primarily remotely, continued to present a number of challenges to our close-knit business culture. Increasing concern around climate change and its ramifications, natural and man-made disasters including an unnecessary and destructive Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine, and the announcement of the transformational sale of our Investor Services (InServ) business to State Street Bank all put strain on our people individually and our organization collectively. They challenged our progress but also in many cases fueled and inspired us forward. Throughout this time, we realized that there has never been a more important time for BBHers to embrace our core values, reimagine our future, and commit to a path that’s both sustainable and beneficial for our clients, our people, and our communities.

With all these external stresses, it has also been an exciting time packed with new challenges, through which our employees have remained extraordinarily committed, driven, and resilient as we redefine what our business will look like in the future. In September 2021, we announced the sale of our InServ business to State Street and then began the process of preparing for the integration of the two*. Our InServ business has grown exponentially over the last 25 years and combining it with one of the largest and most successful securities servicing banks in the world presents a unique opportunity to allow InServ to continue its past growth trajectory without the constraints inherent to a private partnership. Our decision was made after careful consideration of the well-being of our clients, our people, and the InServ business overall which should benefit from becoming an important part of a larger global platform. This transaction simultaneously provides our Private Banking and Investment Management businesses with both space and capital to continue their own growth path where the partnership will focus singularly on delivering excellent investment capabilities, capital, and advisory services to clients.

As our businesses evolve, our commitment to sustainability—both BBH’s and our own personal commitments—remain a constant. Part of our planning on how and where the BBH of the future will have impact involves taking into account, directly or indirectly, those issues that matter most to our clients, to our communities, and to all BBHers. We are among the most motivated and driven workforces in the industry, and we will continue to prioritize—whether on our own or in concert with State Street—those things that we are deeply committed to. Companies such as ours have a central role to play and we take that responsibility seriously.

The issues we face as a global community do not fall into simple categories and they are not bound by a single calendar year. As a result, our goals are nuanced and long-term. When we look back over the last five years at our collective sustainability efforts, there is much to be proud of. We joined the UN Global Compact and became signatories of the UN-supported Principles of Responsible Investing (PRI) through our Investment Management business. Both organizations required us to examine and modify our practices to meet or exceed international sustainability standards. We launched our Supplier Code of Conduct which has enabled us to exert positive influence throughout our supply chain and demand that those we choose to do business with follow guidelines, policies, and practices which are aligned to our own. In addition, we established and communicated a comprehensive set of goals for our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and conducted a global environmental analysis to inform our future BBH workplace environmental goals. Now, as I look back on 2021 from the vantage point of mid-2022, I am gratified by the ongoing efforts we are making as a firm and as individuals and am pleased to reflect on some of the progress I am most proud of.

Future of Work as Pandemic Becomes Endemic

2021 began with the introduction of new vaccines that have helped us gain greater control over COVID-19 and appears, as of this writing, to be easing us from pandemic to endemic. But that change brings along with it an entirely new set of challenges. What are individuals’ risk tolerances? How do we structure our return to office program to find the right balance between time in the office and the flexibility that remote work allows? Most agree that collaboration, innovation, and social intercourse all happen best in person and fuel our unique BBH culture. Yet we have been surprised during the pandemic by how productivity metrics have broadly increased. As we define what hybrid in-office work looks like at BBH, we will do so understanding that each BBHer works differently, values flexible remote-work versus collective in-office work differently, and appreciates the value of BBH’s unique culture differently. Getting this balance right will no doubt take time and experimentation and we look forward to taking the next step in that journey.

With the second full year of social distancing came increased attention on the effects of prolonged isolation on mental health, the need for in-person care for children attending remote school and elderly relatives, and the health concerns of reemerging from social distancing back into our pre-pandemic routines. 2020 provided us with valuable insight into what it was like for our employees to navigate unprecedented personal and professional hurdles while working in isolation. We responded in 2021 by hosting over 150 mostly virtual events targeting employee well-being and we also continued our global “#LetsTalk” programming addressing employee and family mental health. The open and honest conversations we engaged in around these sensitive topics demonstrated a shared interest in helping one another by talking, free of any stigma, about mental health at work.

A Renewed Focus on Climate Change

In the fall 2021, The United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as “COP26,” was held in Glasgow, Scotland. It brought together world leaders from 200 countries to accelerate action in the fight against climate change. One of the specific goals of COP26 was to keep alive the hope to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The Glasgow Climate Pact, a biproduct of the conference, does just that. For our part, BBH is focused on, and committed to, running our operations—particularly our facilities—as efficiently as we can.

To better understand our impact, and thereby to set informed goals for the future, in 2021 we embarked on developing a Green House Gas (GHG) emissions inventory. Our inventory included Scope I, II, and III GHG emissions for 2019 and 2020. We worked with an outside consultant that also recommended improved reporting, strategies to address data gaps, and opportunities to reduce GHG production. We look forward to further defining our goals and setting a timeline for progress as we examine and assess the smaller GHG footprint we expect in the future.

Not surprisingly, our clients also care deeply about climate protection and want to create positive impact through their investments. We are increasingly working with our Private Banking clients to identify their values, priorities, and missions to help translate them into action. In our Investment Management business, we perform in-depth, fundamental analysis featuring ESG factors to support both our equity and fixed income strategies. In 2021 we completed our first annual assessment and climate report as a signatory of the UN-PRI. As part of that assessment, we validated that 100% of time where we analyze financial risk, we analyze ESG risk. Additionally, 79% of our AUM is managed by managers who have confirmed they operate according to a formal ESG policy statement. I am particularly excited about our plans to reinforce our investment team with accountable leaders in ESG integration and sustainable investing in the near future.

War in Ukraine and Supporting Our Global Communities

As I write this well into 2022, Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine continues. By initiating an unnecessary and cruel military assault on its neighbor in late February, Russia has caused a humanitarian crisis resulting in millions of Ukrainians being displaced and fleeing their homes. Our collective reaction of disbelief, horror, and rage was swiftly channeled into constructive action around the globe and across BBH. In particular, BBHers in Poland were active contributing their time at the Ukraine border, assisting refugees including taking some into their homes to provide food and shelter.

As a firm, we responded by making a donation to the Polish Red Cross; we established new job openings designed specifically for Ukrainian refugees; we provided additional flexibility for BBHers to volunteer their time at the local level; and we established an Amazon Wish List so BBHers across the globe could purchase basic supplies Ukrainian refugees desperately needed like socks, undergarments, and diapers. I'm particularly proud of all the BBHers who sacrificed in large and small ways to support Ukrainian refugees fleeing into Poland and elsewhere in Europe.

Making an Impact in the Future

As we look to the future, there’s no doubt our firm faces a transformational change and will be very different in the future versus how we look and operate today. What will not change are our values. They have remained constant since Alexander Brown and his sons founded our firm over two centuries ago and they will be with each of us into the future. Going forward, we will examine and assess our ongoing goals and the focus areas we have described in this report to ensure they are still relevant and afford us the opportunity to make a material impact in the future, whether as a smaller BBH with a narrower focus or as a business line that has combined with the larger State Street. The smaller footprint of BBH in many ways represents just the next chapter in a multi-century period of constant change and evolution. While this is a time of transformation for all of us—and a time to reimagine our futures as individuals and business organizations—the values we each bring with us, including our shared commitment to sustainability and to making a positive impact on our clients, our people, and our communities remains strong.

- William B. Tyree, Managing Partner

*We believe that regulatory reviews should becomplete in the coming months.

Based on 2021 data

2021 Stewardship Report

BBH has been in business for more than 200 years. Sustainability—a steadfast commitment to long-term value and well-being—is core to who we are. We will steward that commitment well into the future—for our clients, our people, and our communities. In this report we detail our accomplishments and progress in our ten focus areas in 2021.

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. (“BBH”) may be used to reference the company as a whole and/or its various subsidiaries generally. This material and anyproducts or services may be issued or provided in multiple jurisdictions by duly authorized and regulated subsidiaries. This material is for general information and referencepurposes only and does not constitute legal, tax or investment advice and is not intended as an offer to sell, or a solicitation to buy securities, services or investment products. Any reference to tax matters is not intended to be used, and may not be used, for purposes of avoiding penalties under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, or other applicable taxregimes, or for promotion, marketing or recommendation to third parties. All information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy is not guaranteed,and reliance should not be placed on the information presented. This material may not be reproduced, copied or transmitted, or any of the content disclosed to third parties,without the permission of BBH. Pursuant to information regarding the provision of applicable services or products by BBH, please note the following: Brown Brothers HarrimanFund Administration Services (Ireland) Limited and Brown Brothers Harriman Trustee Services (Ireland) Limited are regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland, Brown Brothers Harriman Investor Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, Brown Brothers Harriman (Luxembourg) S.C.A is regulated by the Commissionde Surveillance du Secteur Financier. All trademarks and service marks included are the property of BBH or their respective owners. © Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. 2021. All rights reserved. FIRM-00412-2022-09-14

As of June 15, 2022 Internet Explorer 11 is not supported by BBH.com.

Important Information for Non-U.S. Residents

You are required to read the following important information, which, in conjunction with the Terms and Conditions, governs your use of this website. Your use of this website and its contents constitute your acceptance of this information and those Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree with this information and the Terms and Conditions, you should immediately cease use of this website. The contents of this website have not been prepared for the benefit of investors outside of the United States. This website is not intended as a solicitation of the purchase or sale of any security or other financial instrument or any investment management services for any investor who resides in a jurisdiction other than the United States1. As a general matter, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. and its subsidiaries (“BBH”) is not licensed or registered to solicit prospective investors and offer investment advisory services in jurisdictions outside of the United States. The information on this website is not intended to be distributed to, directed at or used by any person or entity in any jurisdiction or country where such distribution or use would be contrary to law or regulation. Persons in respect of whom such prohibitions apply must not access the website.  Under certain circumstances, BBH may provide services to investors located outside of the United States in accordance with applicable law. The conditions under which such services may be provided will be analyzed on a case-by-case basis by BBH. BBH will only accept investors from such jurisdictions or countries where it has made a determination that such an arrangement or relationship is permissible under the laws of that jurisdiction or country. The existence of this website is not intended to be a substitute for the type of analysis described above and is not intended as a solicitation of or recommendation to any prospective investor, including those located outside of the United States. Certain BBH products or services may not be available in certain jurisdictions. By choosing to access this website from any location other than the United States, you accept full responsibility for compliance with all local laws. The website contains content that has been obtained from sources that BBH believes to be reliable as of the date presented; however, BBH cannot guarantee the accuracy of such content, assure its completeness, or warrant that such information will not be changed. The content contained herein is current as of the date of issuance and is subject to change without notice. The website’s content does not constitute investment advice and should not be used as the basis for any investment decision. There is no guarantee that any investment objectives, expectations, targets described in this website or the  performance or profitability of any investment will be achieved. You understand that investing in securities and other financial instruments involves risks that may affect the value of the securities and may result in losses, including the potential loss of the principal invested, and you assume and are able to bear all such risks.  In no event shall BBH or any other affiliated party be liable for any direct, incidental, special, consequential, indirect, lost profits, loss of business or data, or punitive damages arising out of your use of this website. By clicking accept, you confirm that you accept  to the above Important Information along with Terms and Conditions.

 
1BBH sponsors UCITS Funds registered in Luxembourg, in certain jurisdictions. For information on those funds, please see bbhluxembourgfunds.com


captcha image

Type in the word seen on the picture

I am a current investor in another jurisdiction