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Calvert Research and Management (Calvert) is pleased to release its 2025 Stewardship Report, which highlights Calvert’s engagement activities and progress with portfolio companies in 2025. Climate risks and opportunities as well as human capital management emerged as key areas of focus in 2025 and represented 57% of engagement activities throughout the year. Calvert’s engagement approach is grounded in rigorous research focused on financially material issues that are aligned with the Calvert Principles for Responsible Investment and developed in partnership with the Calvert research and portfolio management teams.
“This report reflects Calvert’s commitment to enhancing investment value through strategic and informed engagement with the companies in which Calvert invests,” said Von Hughes, Head of Calvert. “We believe active ownership leads to stronger investor outcomes. Our engagement efforts focus on continuous advancement by establishing clear objectives, tracking progress and building constructive relationships to build long-term value.”
John Wilson, Executive Director, Corporate Engagement for Calvert highlighted that Calvert believes disciplined stewardship and constructive engagement are fundamental to long-term value creation. “Despite a shifting market environment, we have remained consistent in engaging companies on financially material environmental, social and governance issues,” said Wilson. “In 2026, we are continuing our commitment to this work with an even more ambitious global stewardship program that helps companies navigate an increasingly complex operating environment while promoting sustainable, long-term outcomes for our clients.”
Calvert Stewardship Report Highlights:
- Engagement themes include climate risks and opportunities, human capital management, human rights, digital risks and opportunities, sustainability reporting and disclosure and governance.
- Engagements spanned a broad cross-section of industries, with the largest concentrations in the information technology and industrials sectors (13% respectively), energy and consumer staples (12% each) and consumer discretionary (11%). Other sectors where Calvert actively engaged with companies include utilities, financials, health care, real estate, communication services and materials.
- 57% of engagement objectives in 2025 related to disclosure; 34% focused on formal company policies and/or concrete actions; 10% related to performance (i.e. measurable improvements in outcomes, demonstrating progress towards targets or benchmarks on material issues.)
- More than 60% of targeted companies are advancing Calvert’s objectives related to disclosure and company policies (as of 12/31/25); 15% have agreed to or completed actions that fulfill Calvert’s objectives
- 35% of targeted companies executed Calvert’s performance-related objectives; 18% indicated they intend to take such action
- Fixed income engagement represented a portion of Calvert’s overall efforts. Within fixed income, 21% of engagement efforts took place in the industrials, consumer discretionary and utilities sectors respectively, followed by financials and communications (14% each) and consumer staples (7%).
- Calvert maintains a robust proxy voting practice governed by the Calvert Proxy Voting Guidelines. In 2025, Calvert supported 59% of shareholder-proposed resolutions.
- Broadly, environmental and social shareholder proposals declined 40% from 2024.
- Calvert supported 75% of environmental proposals and 87% of social proposals.
Engaging for long-term change
The Stewardship report shares examples illustrating Calvert’s focus on engaging for long-term change. Calvert has a long history of active ownership, from being the first investment manager to file an ESG focused shareholder proposal in 1986 to tightening its proxy voting standards in 2023. Given the clear link between material sustainability and financial success, Calvert sees engagement as a way to foster long-term shareholder value by mitigating risks, enhancing reputation and attracting a wider investor base.
Full report here: Stewardship Report
About Calvert Research and Management
Calvert Research and Management (Calvert) is a global leader in Responsible Investing, offering one of the largest and most diversified families of responsibly invested strategies. With over 40 years of experience, the firm seeks to generate favorable investment returns for clients by allocating capital consistent with environmental, social and governance best practices and through structured engagement with portfolio companies. Calvert is part of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, the asset management division of Morgan Stanley. Learn more at calvert.com.
About Morgan Stanley Investment Management
Morgan Stanley Investment Management, together with its investment advisory affiliates, has more than 1,300 investment professionals around the world and $2 trillion in assets under management or supervision as of June 30, 2026. Morgan Stanley Investment Management strives to provide outstanding long-term investment performance, service, and a comprehensive suite of investment management solutions to a diverse client base, which includes governments, institutions, corporations and individuals worldwide. For further information about Morgan Stanley Investment Management, please visit www.morganstanley.com/im.
About Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. With offices in 42 countries, the Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. For more information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com.
