Insight
Active Engagement and Regulatory Change
Highlights from the past year that led to significant improvements in environmental protection, corporate governance, and transparency.
05/16/2024We weave sustainability and giving back to the communities we live in into employees’ daily lives.
We support charitable organizations with grants and a generous matching program on employees’ contributions.
As long-term investors and UNPRI signatories, we integrate material ESG factors into our bottom-up investment process.
We expect our employees to act with integrity and to always put the interests of our investors first.
We believe that an appreciation of sustainable and socially responsible business, health and environmental practices begins in the office, within our own Matthews Asia community. Two of our formal committees illustrate that principle:
Matthews Asia created the Sustainability Working Group to promote sustainable and responsible practices at the firm, as well as to foster employee wellness. The group obtained Gold LEED certification for the office headquarters and created a carbon offset program for business travel.
Matthews Asia’s “Impact Month” encourages employees to give back the Bay Area. We make a difference through local organizations such as the Edith Witt Senior Community, Asian Community Garden, Bush Recreation Center, Treasure Island Job Corp, and Richmond District Neighborhood Center.
In 2016, we established the Matthews Asia Charitable Giving Program to further expand our philanthropic work. To give back to the communities in which we operate to help achieve their greatest future potential and to support our employees, the Program includes two major components:
In February 2016, Matthews Asia became a signatory to the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI), principles that when implemented, contribute to developing a more sustainable global financial system. By doing so, we commit ourselves to consider the investment implications of ESG issues within our portfolio management and decision-making processes, when appropriate and consistent with our fiduciary duties. We believe consideration of ESG issues is particularly relevant to Asia, where we find many of the world’s sustainability challenges—and potential solutions.
Since our founding in 1991, a cornerstone of our investment process has been a focus on identifying companies that adhere to good corporate governance practices with respect to minority shareholders. The broader consideration of environmental and social issues into the investment approach is a natural evolution of that investment process.
To learn more about the UNPRI, visit unpri.org.
Read more about our Responsible Investment Approach.
At Matthews Asia, we foster an environment where we can all bring our full authentic selves to work. We believe that a diverse and inclusive work environment is key to upholding our core values of Integrity, Client Focus, Initiative and Teamwork. Our Diversity and Inclusion Sub-Committee provides regular training and development across the firm to deepen our commitment to a diverse and inclusive work environment for our employees.