Serving the Public Good
Our research efforts and interventions serve a diverse range of stakeholders, including asset managers, pension funds, and the broader public. Through bringing more transparency and accountability into stewardship and highlighting best practices from leaders, we contribute to the public good: driving systemic change for a more sustainable financial future.
Stewardship is the future of responsible investing
A growing number of investors and academics have recognized that for responsible investing in public markets to have real-world impact, stewardship is the path forward. Unlike other sustainable investing strategies such as exclusions or best-in-class selection, stewardship demands an active investor role.
More clarity around what's working is critical
Given the resource-intensiveness of voting and engagement activities, a sharper focus on what is working is essential to mitigate the risk of applying resources in high-effort, low-impact activities.
rezonanz is Advancing the Future of Stewardship
Researching what's working
We bring a data-driven lens to our work. By systematically collecting proxy voting and engagement records from hundreds of institutional investors, our research aims to shed light on what is working well and where room for improvement exists.
In June 2024, we contributed to a Greenpeace Switzerland study benchmarking asset managers' stewardship practices. Our approach enabled unbiased third-party benchmarking against a Greenpeace-defined selection of proposals from the 2024 AGM season relevant to climate and biodiversity.
Actionable Best Practices
We're in the process of compiling an overview of stewardship best practices spanning voting, engagement, escalation, disclosure and more. The focus of the document is to provide a comprehensive list of the tactics within the stewardship toolbox while also illuminating the evidence that the tactic works (or lack thereof).
In Q2 2025, we're releasing a working paper and inviting experts and stakeholders to comment in the document by the end of Q2. These best practices will serve as an overview of the current state of evidence on stewardship's effectiveness while forming the basis of the stewardship benchmarking framework we'll be announcing in September 2025.
Custom Benchmarking & Highlighting Leaders
In March 2025, we published a report on European pension funds' proxy voting commissioned by the Laudes Foundation. The study has stimulated a timely discussion in Europe while benchmarking pension funds' concrete voting choices on environmental and social aspects. This enabled identification of top-performing pension funds with respect to climate; politics and lobbying; diversity, workers' and human rights; as well as other environmental and social issues.
In June 2024, we contributed to a Greenpeace Switzerland study benchmarking asset managers' stewardship practices. Our approach enabled unbiased third-party benchmarking against a Greenpeace-defined selection of proposals from the 2024 AGM season relevant to climate and biodiversity.
Ongoing and prior research and collaborations
Stewardship Best Practices (Ongoing)
Voting for the Future Report (March 2025)
Impact Through Corporate Stewardship (June 2024)
Voting for Sustainability Ranking (Annual)
Measuring Engagement's Impact:
In partnership with Uni-SG (HSG), supported by Innobooster
Stewardship Best Practices:
In partnership with ZHAW, supported by Innosuisse
Voting for the Future Report:
Commissioned by the Laudes Foundation
Impact Through Corporate Stewardship:
Commissioned by Greenpeace Switzerland
Voting for Sustainability Ranking
Voices from our network
“There is still too often a significant difference between the aspirations of asset owners and the way asset managers vote at general meetings, particularly when it comes to sustainability issues. A ranking of this kind is therefore all the more important because it enables asset owners to form an idea of how asset managers vote on their behalf.”
Vincent Kaufmann
"We have had the pleasure of collaborating with rezonanz on a project focused on assessing asset management proxy voting and stewardship activities. We were extremely satisfied with the partnership and the outcomes delivered. Their communication was consistently clear, and our expectations were effectively managed and met.We were impressed by rezonanz's customizable benchmarking solution, which enabled us to effectively assess proxy voting results against our own criteria focused on environmental impact. This feature was invaluable in helping us with our assessments."
Niki Vischer
"More and more asset managers disclose all their votes online, providing more opportunity for sweeping analysis of their voting behaviour. New players have emerged in the sustainable finance ecosystem, such as the Swiss start-up rezonanz, to mine this information. The company has developed a tool for benchmarking voting behaviour and continued commitment to sustainability priorities, aggregating and analysing large volumes of data. In time, we could have more nuanced and data-driven insights that run deeper than simply analysing the rate of support for shareholder proposals, which are still far from the norm in all markets."
Novethic
Our theory of change
Our theory of change lays out the activities forming the basis of our work, as well as the short-term outcomes and long-term impact of what we're building:
We're interested in collaboration with organizations and investors sharing our intentions to support real-world impact through long-term value creation.
amplifying investors' voices to enable better decisions