Protecting tomorrow's pensions with Nest
Mark Fawcett, Nest’s Chief Investment Officer
“Just like coronavirus, climate change poses serious risks to both our savers and their investments. It has the potential to cause catastrophic damage and completely disrupt our way of life. No-one wants to save throughout their life to retire into a world devastated by climate change."
Nest pension scheme
"As the world’s economy slowly recovers from coronavirus, we want to ensure this recovery is a green one. We have a unique opportunity to support sustainable growth and transition towards a low-carbon economy.
“We believe our new policy sets out a clear vision of where we’re heading. We’ll now work on taking the necessary steps to become net-zero, using our close partnerships with fund managers to amplify our impact and coordinate activities towards meeting the Paris Agreement goals.
“Not only is this the right thing to do, it’s also what our savers want and expect from us. How can we offer them the prospect of a better retirement if we ignore the world they’ll be retiring into?”
Mark Fawcett, Nest’s Chief Investment Officer
Established in 2010 NEST helps people save for their retirement as part of the auto enrolment programme. Nest are accountable to Parliament through the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and are also a public corporation that operates at arm’s length from the government. They have a legal obligation to accept any employer that wishes to use them, making them unique.
Their work directly contributes to the delivery of DWP’s strategic objective to ‘ensure financial security for current and future pensioners’. And through delivering this policy objective they are given a broad focus on the financial wellbeing of both their members and potential future members. Nest are also the biggest Defined Contribution (DC) provider, meaning the employee builds up their own pension pot to provide income when they retire.
Nest’s 5 strategic priorities:
- To support strong member outcomes
- Deliver a good service to their customers
- Grow the business in the right way
- Deliver a sustainable business model
- Deliver a corporation fit for our future
Over the last year their membership has grown by 1.5 million, taking it to 7.9 million in total. So, on behalf of their members they now manage £5.7 billion.
Their aim…
Their aim is to be a net zero emissions scheme by 2050 and they are going to stop putting money into polluting firms who have no plans to change, and instead are going to invest in green energy and companies with stringent climate targets. They also aspire to operate as a not-for-profit business over the long term. All of which put them in the ‘good egg’ category in our books!