Engagement, Research, and Policy Resources
FOR SAVERS
We provide resources and training to help pension savers better understand the investment system and their role within it, as well as the tools to reprogramme the status quo.
FOR INVESTORS
We rank pension providers and asset managers on responsible investment. Our briefings and reports investigate how they can in turn tackle key problems through capital markets.
FOR POLICY-MAKERS
We offer practical recommendations and guidance to policy-makers and regulators to promote a financial system that works in savers’ best interests in the UK and Europe.
Resources for savers
We provide resources and training to help individual pension savers better understand the investment system and their role within it, as well as the tools to reprogramme the status quo of the corporate world and investment system.
Our feature resource for savers
Mission: Pension Power
This guide will help you use the power of your pension to create change through the investment system on the issues that matter to you, from climate change to fair pay.
Our latest resources for savers
Pensions for the Next Generation: Communicating What Matters
17 March 2018
This report explores the attitudes of young savers towards their pensions and proposes easy, low-cost solutions that will help switch millennials on to the power of their savings.
Local Government Pension Funds – Divest From Carbon Campaign: A UNISON Guide
10 January 2018
This is a guide to help UNISON members understand the risk climate change poses to their savings and what actions they can take to protect their pensions.
Our latest videos
Resources for investors
Our annual surveys rank big pension providers or asset managers on responsible investment. Our briefings and reports investigate how industry professionals can tackle key environmental, social, and governance problems through capital markets.
Our latest surveys & rankings
Insuring Disaster
26 May 2021
Our world faces an increasing number of environmental and social challenges, and we are in a race against time to solve them. At the core of its business the insurance industry aims to assess and manage risk, as well as contribute to its reduction. It has a clear interest in addressing environmental and social risk. Yet the industry is not yet part of the solution. We examine 70 of the world’s largest insurance companies on responsible investment governance, climate change, biodiversity and human rights.
Workforce Disclosure in 2020: Trends and Insights
31 March 2021
Workforce disclosure is rapidly improving. 141 of the world’s largest listed companies disclosed to WDI in 2020, a 20 per cent increase from the previous reporting cycle.
Point of No Returns Part V – Leading Practice
28 February 2021
In ShareAction’s survey of the world’s 75 largest asset managers, none achieved an AAA or AA rating across all assessed areas. There were, however, clear pockets of leading practice, demonstrating what was possible. This guide presents a range of short case studies that reflect the current state of leading practice by large asset managers on the core themes of responsible investment governance, climate change, human and labour rights, and biodiversity.
Our latest investor briefings & reports
Tracking for Health: 2021 update
19 July 2021
Last year, our Tracking for Health briefing showed that only Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer (M&S) had commitments to increase sales of healthier products. A year on, we are starting to see very encouraging signs that the retail industry as a whole is shifting in the right direction. Now, retailers representing 60 per cent of the UK grocery retail market have made commitments to increase healthier sales across at least some of their products including ALDI UK, Lidl, M&S, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.
Paris-alignment methodologies for banks: reality or illusion?
29 April 2021
This report aims to establish best practice recommendations for Paris-alignment of bank portfolios, based on a review of two major open-source frameworks and one methodology developed in-house: The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), The Paris Agreement Capital Transition Assessment (PACTA), and Barclays’ BlueTrack. Recommendations are intended for banks or investors engaging with banks on their climate strategies.
Low wage and insecure work in the UK retail sector: An investor briefing and toolkit
21 April 2021
This briefing builds on ShareAction’s previous briefings, Insecure Work in Insecure Times and Investing in the Living Wage, and aims to support investors engaging the supermarket retail sector on the Living Wage and insecure work. It makes the case for raising wages and improving working conditions – starting with retail workers but moving to encompass all workers in the food production system.
Resources for policy-makers
We provide practical recommendations and guidance to policy-makers and regulators to promote responsible investment and a pension system that works in savers’ best interests in the UK and Europe.
Our latest policy briefings & resources
Joint briefing on a sustainable EU retail investment policy
24 June 2021
Together with other civil society groups, ShareAction makes key recommendations to incorporate sustainability aspects in EU retail investment policy. This includes:
- Requiring minimum sustainability competencies of financial “advisors”
- Aligning the interests of financial “advisors” with those of retail clients
- Disclosing sustainability information in a clear, standardised and accessible manner to non-expert retail investors
Laying the Track: The Race to Zero – The role of investors in addressing the just transition
24 June 2021
Our fourth COP26 briefing sets out how investors are addressing the just transition. The investment sector is at the very beginning of getting to grips with one of the of most significant challenges of our time: how to transition to a low-carbon economy while respecting and protecting the rights and interests of workers, communities, consumers and citizens. Too few investors are undertaking human rights due diligence, using social dialogue practices and ensuring their investments are benefitting local communities and workers.
Joint policy paper on sustainable corporate governance
18 June 2021
Together with a group of civil society organisations, ShareAction presents key recommendations on sustainable corporate governance that clarifies the specific responsibilities of boards to oversee sustainability.
This includes:
- Approving forward-looking corporate strategies that fully integrate sustainability considerations
- Linking executive renumeration to the achievement of measurable sustainability targets
- Ensuring boards have expertise on companies’ sustainability risks and impacts
Our latest consultation submissions
BEIS consultation on audit and corporate governance
12 July 2021
ShareAction responds to the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) consultation, Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance: Consultation on the Government’s proposals.
We make seven key recommendations to ensure the Government’s proposals on audit and corporate governance go further, including:
- The UK should match the ambition of the EU on corporate sustainability reporting
- A new resilience statement should be introduced and apply to all companies
- The FRC should introduce a new Public Interest Report and the Government should consider public interest reporting in its 2023 review
DWP consultation on “S” factors in pensions schemes
17 June 2021
ShareAction responds to the Department for Work and Pensions’ consultation on the Consideration of social risks and opportunities by occupational pension schemes.
We call on the Government to require schemes to take action to ensure relevant “S” data initiatives are adequately funded, embed a social taxonomy in the UK regulatory framework and accelerate work around investor due diligence. We also comment on the Just Transition and recommend a joined-up approach to financial regulation with a “placed-based” focus in the real economy.
BEIS consultation on mandatory TCFD
4 May 2021
ShareAction responds to the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) consultation, Consultation on requiring mandatory climate-related financial disclosures (TCFD) by publicly quoted companies, large private companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs).
We advocate for disclosure in line with TCFD’s 11 recommendations, mandatory scenario analysis and compulsory reporting of Scope 3 emissions, to take urgent action on climate risk.