The event was attended by over 100 pension professionals who were polled as to whether pension schemes should consider societal and environmental impact alongside financial returns.
A large majority of respondents (84%) answered “Yes” to this question, compared to just 9% who answered “No” and 7% who stated that they did not know.
With regard to barriers to pension scheme investments, attendees were asked, “What’s the biggest barrier to impact investing in your scheme?”
A “lack of credible data” was identified as a barrier by nearly a third of respondents (32%). The second biggest barrier was identified by more than a quarter of respondents (27%) as “governance constraints”. In joint third place was “reporting fatigue” and “investment underperformance” which were both identified as a barrier by 19% of respondents. The smallest barrier was “member and other stakeholder opposition” identified by just 3% of respondents.
Craig Campbell, a member of the SPP Investment Committee, UK Head of Responsible Investment at Aon, and Chair of this SPP event said: “Despite a reported backlash against ESG, these results are yet further proof that the UK pensions industry takes impact investing seriously, with an impressive 84% of pension professionals indicating that ESG considerations should be taken into account alongside financial returns.
There remain barriers to investing but these are not insurmountable as data on ESG continues to improve, governance constraints are increasingly addressed and member opposition is evidently limited.”
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