How a Major Asset Owner Shifted AUD 50 Billion Toward the Energy Transition

When transition data was scarce, screening out high emitters was an accepted way to cut portfolio emissions intensity. But as disclosures improved, a harder question emerged: Do exclusions support the energy transition or sideline companies best positioned to lead it?

That was the question that Aware Super, one of Australia's largest profit-for-member superannuation funds managing over AUD 235 billion for 1.3 million members, began asking.¹ By 2025, the fund concluded that transition plans offered a more credible, forward-looking signal than historical emissions data alone.

The question was not whether to evolve, but how to do it at scale, across 12 domestic and international mandates, without compromising benchmark integrity or increasing tracking error. Having worked with Aware Super on index construction over many years, MSCI helped translate that shift into a new suite of custom indexes.