ESG Historical Data

On March 31, 2025, Morningstar, Inc. renamed the Morningstar “Sustainability Rating” for Funds to the Morningstar “ESG Risk Rating” for Funds. This change aims to better align the name with the ratings' intended meaning and provide consistency with the naming conventions used by Morningstar and Sustainalytics at the issuer level. There is no change to the methodology or calculation underlying this rating, and the “Globe” iconography associated with it will remain the same.

*Please note that a Fund will not be assigned a fund-level ESG Risk Rating by Morningstar if it is new or does not have a sufficient enough portion of its assets under management qualified for rating according to Morningstar's ESG Risk Rating for Fund Methodology. Excluded from Qualified Holdings are short positions, cash and currency, derivatives and synthetic holdings; similarly, municipal bonds, commodities, real estate, and alternative investment types are not considered corporate or sovereign and are not currently eligible to contribute toward the overall rating. For this reason a “money market” fund will generally not receive a Morningstar ESG Risk Rating.

The Morningstar® ESG Risk Rating and the Morningstar® Low Carbon Designation, and any other rankings and scores, are updated monthly, typically 45 days after each month-end. The Fund’s ESG data presented here may not be as recent as the Fund’s performance or holdings data.

Morningstar ESG Risk Ratings and scores are portfolio-based, not performance-based. They do not reflect a Fund’s performance on either an absolute or risk-adjusted basis, nor are they a qualitative Morningstar evaluation of a Fund’s merits and should not be the sole basis for an investment decision. The Fund’s Morningstar ESG Risk Rating and Carbon ratings, rankings and scores evaluate the ESG aspects of the Fund’s portfolio holdings and do not evaluate the efficacy of the Fund’s ESG investment strategies and are not indicative of how well ESG considerations are integrated by the Fund. The full rating methodology employed by Morningstar can be found on their website or by clicking on the following link: https://www.morningstar.com/content/dam/marketing/shared/research/methodology/744156_Morningstar_Sustainability_Rating_for_Funds_Methodology.pdf A copy of the Morningstar ESG Risk Rating for Fund Methodology may be obtained, free of charge, by contacting us at 1 (866) 383-6546 or insights@guardiancapital.com Other providers may also prepare ESG ratings and rankings of mutual funds and ETFs based on their own methodologies, which may differ from the methodology employed by Morningstar.

Guardian Capital LP is a signatory of the United Nations-supported Principles of Responsible Investment (UN PRI). The UN PRI does not prescribe the exclusion of any particular type of company or industry; rather it requires that, as the Manager, we are informed on the ESG issues, and that we are comfortable with the activities and practices of the companies that we invest in. Guardian’s approach to responsible investing is consistent with the framework provided by the UN PRI. Our Responsible Investing policies are publicly available on our website at https://www.guardiancapital.com/investmentsolutions/responsible-investing/

Responsible investing is an approach to investing that incorporates ESG considerations into investment decisions. This approach may incorporate considerations beyond traditional financial information into the investment selection process, which could result in investment performance deviating from other products with comparable objectives or from broad market benchmarks.

Guardian’s Sustainable Funds have ESG-related investment objectives, while other Guardian Mutual Funds and ETFs do not. Guardian Funds integrate ESG considerations into the investment analysis of securities within their respective portfolios, but which may only have a limited role in the portfolio management team’s assessment and investment decision-making process, as applicable to the different portfolio strategies and securities. The consideration of ESG factors is only one of a number of elements and strategies in the portfolio construction process and may or may not have a material influence on portfolio composition and performance at any given time. Certain prospectused ETFs and mutual funds managed by Guardian Capital LP may invest in securities such as derivatives, cash, money market instruments, asset-backed securities and commercial paper, and other similar instruments where ESG integration may not be applicable due to the nature of such instruments. The opportunity for stewardship and active engagement is more limited for funds holding the types of securities listed above as there are typically no voting rights attached. In a fund-of-funds structure, the bottom fund holding the portfolio securities will be the fund engaged in stewardship and/or active engagement. In the case of third-party funds used in fund-of-fund structures, there may be no direct engagement by Guardian Capital LP with the issuers held in those funds. A Fund’s ESG characteristics and performance may change from time to time. Please review the Fund’s prospectus for details on how the Fund’s investment strategy incorporates responsible investing considerations and the associated risks, and consult your financial professional prior to investing.