Hartford Funds Adds Sustainable Bond ETF

Yesterday, Hartford Funds rolled out an actively managed ETF that invests in both junk bonds and high quality debt that have been screened for sustainability characteristics. The Hartford Sustainable Income ETF (HSUN) is managed by Wellington Management and, in particular, aims to reflect a lower carbon footprint than that of its broader selection universe.

HSUN comes with an expense ratio of 0.54% and lists on Cboe Global Markets.

In addition to being able to invest across a wide range of sectors, countries, credit qualities and fixed income categories, HSUN analyzes a range of sustainability criteria related to the issuers it includes in its portfolio. The fund’s manager uses an in-house evaluation framework to select securities from issuers it believes have a positive social and environmental impact; that are showing improvement or leadership on environmental, social and governance issues; and that it interacts with to improve transparency and best practices, the prospectus says.

In addition to a rigorous evaluation of issuers’ carbon exposures, Wellington excludes issuers from consideration if they are heavily involved in the fossil fuel, tobacco, cannabis or weapons industries, according to the document.

HSUN is one of only a few actively managed ESG bond ETFs. Its most direct competitor is the $26 million IQ MacKay ESG Core Plus Bond ETF (ESGB), which comes with an expense ratio of 0.39%.

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected]