USING YOUR PENSION POWER TO MAKE THE INVESTMENT SYSTEM MORE SUSTAINABLE

Guest blog by Jessica Clark, ShareAction

Last month a group of us came together for the evening to discuss all things sustainability. The room was packed with enthusiastic people who are pioneers in a whole host of areas ranging from food to finance, education and business. The common theme was the desire to have an impact on the world around us and to shift the narrative from sustainability as an add-on to sustainability as integral to everything we do. It just makes sense, both economically and in terms of the health of our planet and its inhabitants.

I was sat on the finance and funding table, and spoke about how at ShareAction, we’re determined to unlock the potential of the investment system to bring about positive change as well as delivering financial returns.

One of the key ways we try and do this is by bringing the voice of the individual saver into the system to try and make it more democratic. There is often a sense that the investment system is a “thing” that’s far removed from our daily lives, yet it impacts us in so many ways by driving company behaviour. This is where we make the link to pensions! We pay money into a pension and that money gets invested on our behalf. So it’s our way into the investment system, our stake in it.

People get involved for all sorts of different reasons. They might want their pension fund to support the transition to a low-carbon economy or to pressure companies to pay workers a proper living wage. But the main aim is to instill in people a sense of ownership over their pension so that they’re encouraged to take action and influence how it’s invested. We’ve been working with teams of savers who’ve achieved some amazing results by making their voices heard, and slowly but surely changing the mind-set of the pensions industry so that sustainability and saver voice are moving up the agenda.

So, unsurprisingly, I’ll end by coming back to the call of action that was thrown out to the audience at the end of the night to get in touch and find out more about your pension. We’re running a number of trainings and events in the coming months and would love to support you in engaging with your pension fund. Pensions might sound boring, but with the right amount of lobbying they can be incredibly exciting!

Get in touch on Jessica.clark@shareaction.org and start your Pension Power journey.

6heads meet on the 3rd Tuesday of every month. Our next meeting is on the 23rd January. You can REGISTER HERE