As one of the UK’s largest pension schemes, the Trustee supports the importance of establishing sustainable investment principles that tackle climate change and the delivery of a net zero future.
What does net zero mean?
Net zero means achieving a balance between the carbon emitted into the atmosphere, and the carbon removed from it. As a pension scheme, we can do this by investing in assets that will support the transition towards a low carbon economy.
We take account of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors across all areas of the Scheme’s investments and to help with this, we have established a special ESG Committee to explore the opportunities and risks within ESG and make recommendations to the Trustee Board.
M&S has recently announced its commitment to be fully net zero by 2040. The Trustee is keen to align the pension scheme with M&S and we expect to announce our carbon reduction targets before the start of the next financial year. In the meantime, with the support of expert advisors, we plan to build on the sustainable investments that we already have in place.
We are currently reviewing our greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint to meet with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and will be reporting these findings next year, alongside interim and long-term targets to rapidly reduce emissions associated with our portfolio.
Read more about the Trustee’s approach to sustainability here.