Trustee Sustainability Working Group launched in bid to accelerate change

The group – chaired by HS Trustees managing director Bobby Riddaway – said climate change will be a key early focus of the committee.

The TSWG said it wanted to be "action orientated" – adding if the group could look back in a couple of years and see transition plans developing across the pensions sector, practical solutions for small schemes and richer conversations about risk, then it would "know with confidence" that its efforts had contributed to that progress.

The group said its terms of reference summarises how it expects to act: "The committee will seek to use its influence and the influence of the organisations which members represent, where applicable and/ or agreed to improve stewardship in relation to both investee company engagement (usually through fund manager engagement), industry standards and policy advocacy.

"The committee aims to drive better sustainable investment practices across the industry for its key stakeholders, working with schemes, consultant firms, asset managers and regulators."

The TSWG said it believes pension regulation has helped drive the awareness of sustainability and, in particular, the issue of climate change but said it now has an "over-emphasis on low level reporting" – something it said has direct implications for the use of trustees' limited resources, especially for small and mid-size schemes.

It added it supported the view that much of the climate scenario modelling across the industry was not decision-useful – noting the output often seems to be "at variance with the science" and adding it wanted to support further work in this area to explore why.

The TSWG is currently comprised of the following individuals:

• Bobby Riddaway (chair) – HS Trustees
• Caroline Allensby-Green – Dalriada Trustees
• Peter Cameron Brown – Trustee
• Sarah Marshall – Pi Partnership
• Natalie Winterfrost – LawDeb Pension Trustees
• Tegs Harding – Independent Governance Group
• Natalie Waller – Trustee
• Maggie Rodger/ John Flynn – Association of Member-Nominated Trustees
• Anne Sander – Zedra
• Roger Breeden – BESTrustees
• Richard Giles – Trustee
• Mike Clark – Ario Advisory (Guest climate expert)

Any questions or queries should be initially directed to the chair, [email protected]