Investing for Impact: What Global Bonds Can Do for Your Portfolio

As an investor, you’re no longer forced to choose between financial returns and meaningful environmental or social outcomes. In global fixed income markets today, it is possible to achieve both.

Bonds with an environmental or social objective are now a US$5 trillion global asset category, offering exposure to a diverse range of issuers, sectors, and structures - all while financing projects with clear benefits for society and the planet. Whether you're looking to enhance diversification, moderate portfolio risk, or align with client values, such bonds can offer an attractive, practical way forward.

That’s why more advisers, consultants, and institutional investors are integrating sustainable fixed income into their core portfolios.

A More Purposeful Way to Position Fixed Income

When done right, ESG and impact investing in fixed income is about measurably improving outcomes in the real world and growing your investments at the same time.

Nuveen, via the Nuveen Global Sustainable Bond Fund, the underlying holding for the Trust Management ESG International Bond Fund, has been putting this into practice since 2007. Their approach goes beyond simple screening: it targets direct and measurable impact through careful selection of green, social, and sustainable bonds. This means your investment can support:

• Clean energy infrastructure to accelerate the transition to net zero
• Affordable housing in growing and urbanizing regions
• Regenerative projects like reforestation and biodiversity conservation
• Economic development in underserved communities globally

And it does so without sacrificing the financial objectives required to meet return expectations for a core bond allocation.

Why This Matters for Your Strategy

For many investors, fixed income is the ballast of their portfolio. But with disappointing returns in some traditional bond products and rising demand for responsible investing, sustainable fixed income offers a way to:

• Achieve an enhanced yield for an overall portfolio alongside managing downside risks
• Align with ethical, ESG, or faith-based mandates
• Demonstrate real-world social and environmental impact through transparent reporting
• Take part in a fast-growing segment of global markets without compromising performance

Trust Investments + Nuveen

At Trust Investments, we’re committed to delivering ethical investing outcomes without compromising on returns. That’s why we've partnered with Nuveen, a global leader in impact-focused fixed income investing, to bring this strategy to New Zealand investors.

The Trust Management ESG International Bond Fund provides:

• Access to a globally diversified sustainable fixed income strategy
• Active management designed to outperform the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index (NZD hedged) through the market cycle
• A clear and proven framework for assessing impact, developed over nearly two decades
• Hedged to the New Zealand dollar

Explore It for Yourself

Join our live webinar on 10 December at 9am NZT, where Nuveen Portfolio Manager Jessica Zarzycki, CFA, and Trust Investments’ Matthew Goldsack will discuss:

• How sustainable fixed income fits into a modern investment strategy
• What trends, risks, and innovation are shaping global impact bonds
• What kinds of outcomes investors can expect in both financial and impact terms