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06 Jul 2020
by Diandra Soobiah

Why environmentally responsible employees are unaware of their pension power

More than half of consumers have taken steps to be more environmentally or socially responsible in their daily lives. However, this is yet to be extended to their financial decisions, a recent survey from Nest has shown.

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Only 7% of those surveyed have actively switched to a financial services provider that promotes corporate responsibility, and even fewer (5%) said they had made a similar decision with their pension and investments.

This is despite nearly half of savers saying they were interested in where their money goes. The findings suggest that people are not making the connection between their everyday behaviour to be more responsible and their finances.

That’s why we launched the Nest Responsible Investment report designed specifically for savers. It aims to show our nine million members how their pension scheme is investing their money responsibly, and outlines what Nest has achieved on their behalf over the past year, including;

  • going tobacco-free across all our investments
  • investing more than £200 million into businesses that are leading the way in transitioning to a low-carbon economy
  • challenging companies to pay their employees the Living Wage
  • reducing the carbon footprint of investments equivalent to taking 44,180 cars off the road in one year.

Our research shows there is a clear appetite from consumers to have a positive impact on the world around us, which is great to see. It’s something financial companies – pension schemes, banks, insurance providers – should be using to excite and inform their customers about the power of their savings.

We suspect many consumers are simply unaware of the power their money could have and that companies are still making the topic too complicated, something we’ll be investigating further.

The need to invest sustainably has never been more important in these challenging times. We believe this helps savers to continue achieving better long-term outcomes and reduces the level of risk they’re exposed to.

To share the Nest Responsible Investment report with your employees, please download the report.

The author is Diandra Soobiah, head of responsible investment at Nest.

This sponsored article is provided by Nest.

In partnership with Nest

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