When Richard Curtis, co-founder of Red Nose Day, Make Poverty history and writer/director of a few much loved films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral states that Pensions are going to have the biggest impact on climate change and the UN SDGs, you lean
in to learn more.
Last week I tuned into an online briefing via
The Conduit Club a club for changemakers working to solve real world issues. Hosted by Gillian Tett, chair of the FT editorial board and editor of
FT Moral Money, Richard was joined by Catherine Howarth of
ShareAction and John Ditchfield of
Impact Lens.
Richard took us through his impressive contributions from driving charitable giving (Red Nose Day), to working with government funds (Make Poverty History) and publicising the MDGs and the SDGs. But when he learnt, to his own astonishment, that changing
where your money is invested can be
27x more efficient than anything else an individual consumer can do, it was clear what he had to do next.
Richard is working a new campaign called
Make My Money Matter that aims to inform and enable the public to engage the finance industry to make our money build a better world while it grows.
He tackled head on the question of returns and shared the growing consensus that Sustainable Investments were as good, if not better than traditional portfolios. But he also offered a quote from Paul Polman, ex CEO of Unilever: “The cost of fulfilling all
the SDGs is less than the cost of failing on anyone of them."
His breakthrough moment on all this was a
Ted Talk he watched from Dr Bronwyn King talking about spending her life saving lives from lung cancer and then discovering her pension was investing in the tobacco industry. As Richard handed over to the rest of the speakers, it was clear he was convinced
that the £2.2 trillion in the UK pensions industry alone could be put to better use.
Gillian expertly took the speakers through their paces and asked Catherine about ShareAction who rank pension funds and asset managers by asking the tough questions to financial services organisations about the questions they are asking boards of corporates
about their strategy, ESG performance and voting.
Two key levers described on their website as:
- Allocates capital (i.e. invests money) in a way that promotes sustainable returns from companies and other assets that have a positive environmental, social, and/or governance impact.
- Engages investee companies to improve their impact and takes the steps to ensure that engagement is more than just talk, e.g. by requesting important data, or supporting strategic shareholder resolutions at a company’s annual general meeting (AGM).
All this may sound far removed from our daily lives but the reality is that we all have a stake in how the investment system works through our pension savings. Our futures depend on that system, and our present is shaped by it.
John, who has worked to establish pension schemes for leading organisations across environmental campaigning, UK fashion brands and other organisations focused on sustainability, noted the challenges of transitioning the industry from one focussed purely
on profit to one that delivers Values as well as Value, based on the triple bottom line of People, Profit and Planet. But he noted the challenges are surmountable and with demand from consumers and via their workplace pensions it’s clear that demand will drive
focus on quality ESG suppliers.
As Richard headed off to join a late supper, he gave us all a few tips of good TV to watch and left us with the slogan to Build Back Better as a rallying cry for us all post the COVID-19 crisis.