For institutional investors

Investor
Engagement.

Portfolio-wide norms-based screening, breach and watchlist identification, and company engagement shaped around your investment priorities.

Request the service brief

Your portfolio.
Your priorities.

We can screen your entire portfolio against international norms, identify breaches and companies at risk, and use the findings to initiate company engagement. Agree the portfolio and screening criteria with us; the research identifies which companies need attention. Focused mandates for companies you have already selected are also available.

For mandates that include engagement, work directly with a named manager, contribute questions, request participation in company meetings and receive quarterly reporting on progress, unresolved concerns and the decisions ahead. Portfolio screening coverage and the volume of active engagements are planned separately, with staffing, priorities and onboarding agreed around your needs.

Our team includes former Sustainalytics engagement professionals, alongside ESG research, ratings and investor-analysis expertise.

Three ways to work with Fruuit

Research & screening

Commission screening across your entire portfolio or a focused company assessment. Identify substantiated norms breaches, at-risk companies and watchlist concerns. Use the evidence and company questions in your investment process or with your chosen engagement provider.

Alongside your team

Bring Fruuit into your established engagement approach. We support portfolio managers and stewardship teams with research and preparation before meetings, participation in agreed company discussions, and evidence review and follow-up between meetings.

Fruuit-managed engagement

Connect portfolio screening to company dialogue when a breach or watchlist concern meets the agreed engagement criteria. A named manager coordinates outreach, tracks commitments and reports on progress. You can also appoint Fruuit for companies and objectives you have already selected.

Engagement around your investment priorities.

The mandate defines the portfolio or company universe, screening criteria, engagement triggers, contact activity, review cadence and investor involvement. Screening can identify the companies and issues for engagement, alongside priorities you bring directly. Three service categories organize the work; an engagement can address several issues while each company and objective retain a single record.

01

Corporate Accountability

Serious controversies, business conduct concerns, remediation and prevention. The work examines the company’s response and the evidence of corrective action.

02

Business Resilience

Management of financially material sustainability risks. Objectives focus the dialogue on the changes that matter to the company’s risk management and the investor’s concerns.

03

Sustainability Priorities

Investor-selected objectives, including climate transition, nature, water and human rights. The company list, requested change and evidence requirements are agreed around your priorities.

You can begin with portfolio-wide screening, start focused company engagements or continue existing dialogues. We agree coverage, engagement priorities and delivery capacity around your portfolio and the work already under way.

A clear record at every stage.

For engagement mandates, each deliverable connects the company, the objective, the evidence and the next action. The mandate sets the delivery cadence and reporting arrangements.

Coverage and objective register

Portfolio screening coverage, identified breaches and watchlist concerns, active engagement cases, accountable owners, objectives and milestones.

At onboarding; updated when scope changes

Company case record

Sources, assessments, company commitments, unresolved questions and next actions.

Ongoing monitoring at the agreed cadence

Dialogue and meeting updates

Company responses, evidence requests, commitments and the follow-up required after a substantive exchange.

After substantive exchanges

Quarterly engagement report

Objective progress, company responsiveness, stalled cases, investor decisions and next-quarter priorities.

Quarterly, with a review discussion

Action and decision register

Responsibilities, deadlines, evidence gaps and escalation requests, with a named owner for each next step.

Material updates and agreed reviews

Controversy Assessment & Norms-Based Screening

Screen your entire portfolio against international norms to identify substantiated breaches and companies at risk of a breach. Watchlist findings flag concerns that need closer review or monitoring. Findings can trigger engagement under the agreed mandate, with a clear record of the evidence, objectives and next actions. Focused company reviews and ongoing monitoring are also available.

Your team leads engagement

Use Fruuit’s assessments, source references and company questions in your own stewardship process or with another engagement provider. Research does not require a Fruuit engagement mandate.

Fruuit manages engagement

When screening identifies a breach or watchlist concern that meets the agreed criteria, Fruuit initiates the engagement process: define the objective, assign a manager and begin outreach in line with the agreed priorities and contact authority. The manager tracks commitments and reports on progress, evidence gaps and stalled cases.

How we screen companies and assess controversies

Every conclusion is connected to an entity, an issue, the relevant standard and the evidence available at the review date.

01 Define the universe

Confirm the full portfolio or other agreed universe, issuer identifiers, subsidiaries and relevant business relationships. Agree the investor policy, lookback period, languages, materiality thresholds, watchlist criteria, engagement triggers and review cadence.

Output: Coverage register and research scope.

02 Find and organize the evidence

Review regulatory and court records, company disclosures, credible media, civil society reports and other relevant sources. Group reports about the same event to avoid double counting.

Output: Dated incident log and source register.

03 Test the norms connection

Identify the specific international expectation and explain how the conduct relates to it. Examine whether the company caused, contributed to or is directly linked to the impact.

Output: Issue-to-standard mapping and involvement rationale.

04 Assess harm and company response

Examine scale, scope, duration, reversibility and recurring patterns. Assess remedy for affected stakeholders, preventive controls and the evidence supporting management claims.

Output: Separate impact, evidence and remediation findings.

05 Challenge and review the conclusion

Seek company clarification where relevant and agreed, and record responses, disputes and non-response. A second reviewer challenges significant adverse conclusions and unresolved assumptions.

Output: Reviewed assessment with research scope and version history.

06 Report, monitor and reassess

Deliver findings with investor questions and recommended next steps. Reopen cases when material evidence changes and document why an assessment improves, deteriorates or remains unchanged.

Output: Company report, change log and agreed updates.

Four distinct assessment judgements

Alignment with norms

Map human rights, labour, environmental and integrity concerns to relevant UN Global Compact principles, UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, OECD guidance and ILO standards.

Evidence quality

Record source quality, corroboration, investigative or legal status, company responses and information gaps. Distinguish what is supported, disputed and unknown.

Impact severity

Assess scale, scope and difficulty of remedy in the relevant context. Record potential business implications separately from harm to people or the environment.

Company remediation

Distinguish commitments from action, implementation from outcomes, and company assertions from independently supported evidence.

How norms-assessment conclusions are expressed
No material concern identified
No evidence meeting the concern threshold within the agreed scope.
Further review required
Potentially material concerns remain unresolved.
Substantiated norms concern
Evidence supports a material inconsistency with the relevant norm.
Insufficient information
The evidence base does not support a reliable conclusion.

Limited information does not establish a clean record. Improvements require evidence of remedy or reduced concern; the passage of time alone does not close a case. Investor policy decisions remain with the investor.

Research outputs your team can use

Portfolio screening register

Issuer identifiers, norms breaches, at-risk and watchlist concerns, assessment status, severity, evidence confidence, review dates and links to company assessments. Record which findings have triggered engagement and which require further review.

XLSX / CSV

Company assessment

Conclusion, incident chronology, standards mapping, company involvement, evidence, response, remediation and investor questions.

PDF

Material-change note

New information, previous and current assessment, reasons for the change and implications for investor follow-up.

PDF / email

Quarterly portfolio review

New and unresolved cases, assessment movements, remediation progress, coverage and matters requiring an investor decision.

For ongoing portfolio mandates · PDF + discussion

Engagement action plan

Objectives, company questions, evidence requests, commitments, owners, dates, meeting notes and escalation or closure considerations.

For mandates that include Fruuit engagement

Company responses inform the research; they do not determine the conclusion. Research clarification and an investor engagement mandate have distinct purposes.

Your team stays close to the dialogue.

Your engagement manager explains assessments, discusses investment priorities and coordinates follow-through. Ask questions against a company, objective or update, and see the supporting evidence and next action.

Before

Shape the discussion

Review the purpose, proposed agenda, objectives and expected participant roles. Contribute questions and request participation in a suitable company meeting.

During

Test commitments and evidence

Join confirmed company meetings and keep the requested change in focus. If you cannot attend, ask your manager to raise your question and report the response.

After

See what follows

Review company answers, new commitments, unresolved questions and the manager’s assessment. Follow the dated actions and the people responsible for them.

Participation is arranged with the company and confirmed by the engagement manager. Company agreement, relevance, capacity and confidentiality may affect attendance. Information-sharing arrangements distinguish internal reporting from material approved for public use.

Progress against the objective.
Evidence behind the assessment.

Each objective starts with a documented baseline, a specific change sought, indicators, milestones and review dates. Updates retain the objective, baseline, dated source and manager assessment so you can follow what changed over time.

Commitment recorded

A specific promise

The company’s requested action, accountable role and time frame are recorded.

Implementation evidenced

Action in practice

Documentation or other credible evidence shows the agreed action is being implemented.

Outcome evidenced

A supported result

Evidence supports the objective’s defined result, including its relevant period and coverage.

Quarterly reporting for investment committees

  • Executive assessment of the quarter’s material developments
  • Objective progress and the evidence supporting each change
  • Company responsiveness and outstanding commitments
  • Stalled cases and recommended escalation
  • Action and decision register with owners and dates
  • Next-quarter priorities and a review discussion

Company statements, implementation evidence and demonstrated outcomes remain distinct. Meetings and written exchanges describe activity; milestone changes describe assessed progress. Engagement contribution is assessed separately and any attribution claim requires evidence.

Assessment stages and counting the work
  1. Baseline review: history or scope is being validated; no assessed company progress is implied.
  2. Dialogue established: a substantive two-way exchange addresses the objective.
  3. Commitment recorded: a specific commitment has an accountable role and time frame.
  4. Implementation evidenced: credible evidence shows the agreed action in practice.
  5. Outcome evidenced: evidence supports the defined result and scope.

Stages are categorical assessments, not completion percentages. Evidence can justify entering at a later stage or moving an assessment backwards. Company totals use unique companies; each objective is counted once, even when it supports several themes.

When progress stalls or a company does not respond

The manager records attempts, missed commitments and evidence gaps, explains the concern and recommends a next step. That may involve another company contact, a formal letter or an investor review. Repeated outreach is not counted as progress. Escalation that requires investor authority proceeds after that authority is confirmed.

Investment and voting decisions remain yours. Company responses and engagement outcomes cannot be guaranteed.

Keep the useful history.
Make the next steps clear.

A change of provider should not erase the rationale, objectives and commitments behind an existing engagement. We review records you are entitled to share and preserve original dates, while distinguishing inherited assessments from Fruuit’s own work.

01 / Understand

Bring the history together

Review portfolio coverage and existing company cases, the original objectives, dialogue history, commitments and evidence. Record the gaps and the effect they have on the case baseline.

02 / Agree

Set the next phase

Confirm screening coverage, engagement triggers and objectives, the named manager, contact authority, review cadence and investor participation. Plan active engagement capacity and staffing against the expected workload. Explain and agree any proposed change to an objective.

03 / Continue

Follow through and report

Continue the dialogue, assess new evidence and track commitments. Report what has changed, what has stalled and what needs a decision.

An indicative plan for the first 90 days

Days 1–15 · Review

Confirm portfolio coverage, screening and watchlist criteria, priorities and permitted records. Produce a coverage and gap register.

Days 16–30 · Agree

Validate baselines, engagement triggers, objectives, managers and the contact plan. Agree active engagement capacity, staffing and participation preferences.

Days 31–60 · Engage

Begin priority dialogue, record commitments and provide meeting and action updates.

Days 61–90 · Review

Assess new evidence and unresolved gaps, prepare the first review and agree the next-quarter plan.

The schedule is adapted to the available history and your priorities. Urgent meetings, overdue commitments or reporting needs can be addressed through an agreed interim action plan.

Coverage, confidentiality and service boundaries

The mandate defines the screening universe, engagement triggers, objectives, contact authority, reporting cadence, participation, information-sharing arrangements and delivery channels. Screening findings can bring new companies into engagement within those agreed parameters. Changes to the screening universe, service scope or active engagement capacity are agreed in advance.

Provide only records you are entitled to share. Original engagement dates remain visible and Fruuit’s coverage start date is recorded separately. Restrictions on licensed or confidential material are reviewed before use.

Proxy voting execution, shareholder resolutions, public campaigns and legal services are outside the described base scope unless separately agreed. Fruuit does not act publicly in an investor’s name without authority.

Fruuit is independent of Morningstar Sustainalytics. There is no official transfer arrangement or automatic access to its systems or records.

Your next conversation

Let’s talk progress.