Our journey to net zero

We’re on a journey to becoming a net zero business by 2050 and we have started taking actions to achieve this. While we currently invest in high emitting companies and sectors, we have developed a climate action model to transition to net zero across our business, full details of which can be found in our Net Zero Transition Plan:

Invest: We are decarbonising our investment portfolio, working with investees and asset managers to drive down emissions through the effective stewardship of our assets, and investing in the growing companies and sectors of the future.
Engage: We want to use our insight and knowledge to lead the debate on key climate-related challenges. This includes working with government, non-governmental organisations and across our industry and the economy to remove the barriers to net zero investment and define best practice.
Lead: We are decarbonising our operations and supply chain. To achieve our goals we are investing in low carbon technologies across our offices, and working with suppliers that support our climate ambition.

Our customers are at the heart of our plan and our actions are aligned with delivering good customer outcomes.

Our analysis shows that, in the long term, failing to decarbonise our portfolio will expose our customers to increased risk and will lead to less resilient investment portfolios. We also believe that companies whose business models align with a net zero transition are more likely to benefit from the growth opportunities presented by a low carbon future.

Read our Net Zero Transition Plan to find out more about our approach to decarbonising our investment portfolio, own operations and supply chain.

Our targets and progress to date

We have set targets across our investment portfolio, operations and supply chain to ensure we transition to net zero by 2050 or sooner.

Area	% Group carbon footprint	Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Measure/coverage	Baseline (2019)	2023	2025 target	2030 target	2050 target
Investment portfolio	99%	Scope 3: Other indirect GHG emissions Category 15: Investments	24.3 MtCO₂e	18.1 MtCO₂e*	Reduce the carbon emissions intensity of our listed equity and credit assets where we exercise control and influence by 25%	Reduce the carbon emissions intensity of our investments where we exercise control and influence by 50%	Net zero across all our investments
Supply chain	<1%	Scope 3: Other indirect GHG emissions Category 1: Purchased Goods and Services Category 2: Capital Goods	-**	124,943 tCO₂e**	-	Reduce the carbon intensity of our supply chain by 50%	Net zero in our supply chain
Own operations	<1%	Scope 1: Direct GHG emissions Scope 2: Electricity indirect GHG emissions Scope 3: Other indirect GHG emissions	21,523 tCO₂e	11,357 tCO₂e***	Net zero for Scope 1, 2 (market-based) and Scope 3 Category 6 Business Travel	-	Net zero in operations (including remaining Scope 3 categories)

Area

% Group carbon footprint

Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Measure/coverage

Baseline (2019)

2023

2025 target

2030 target

2050 target

Investment portfolio

99%

Scope 3: Other indirect GHG emissions

Category 15: Investments

24.3 MtCO₂e

18.1 MtCO₂e*

Reduce the carbon emissions intensity of our listed equity and credit assets where we exercise control and influence by 25%

Reduce the carbon emissions intensity of our investments where we exercise control and influence by 50%

Net zero across all our investments

Supply chain

<1%

Scope 3: Other indirect GHG emissions

Category 1: Purchased Goods and Services

Category 2: Capital Goods

-**

124,943 tCO₂e**

-

Reduce the carbon intensity of our supply chain by 50%

Net zero in our supply chain

Own operations

<1%

Scope 1: Direct GHG emissions

Scope 2: Electricity indirect GHG emissions

Scope 3: Other indirect GHG emissions

21,523 tCO₂e

11,357 tCO₂e***

Net zero for Scope 1, 2 (market-based) and Scope 3 Category 6 Business Travel

-

Net zero in operations (including remaining Scope 3 categories)

*Investment emissions are as of calendar year 2022 (the latest year for which emissions data is readily available).

**We have been undertaking an extensive exercise to enhance our supply chain data, as well as spend data quality and categorisation, in order to calculate our indicative supply chain emissions more accurately. As a result of this process our indicative supply chain emissions have now been remodelled for calendar year 2023. We will continue to enhance the primary data and expect to publish a validated emissions baseline for the supply chain next year.

***Emissions in scope of our 2050 net zero in operations target

Definition of commonly used net zero terms

When businesses look to explain their climate impact, the language can be complex. We’ve defined some of the common terms that you’ll find in our Net Zero Transition Plan to help make our plans accessible to everyone.

Assets under administration (AUA): Measure of the total assets, pension and savings products, for which a financial institution provides administrative services and charges a fee for doing so.
Carbon footprint: A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organisation, service, place or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
Financed emissions: Greenhouse gas emissions that occur as a result of financing, including lending and investment activity. These activities fall within Scope 3, category 15 of the GHG protocol.
Net zero: A state where we add no incremental greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Emissions output is balanced with removal of carbon from the atmosphere.
Listed credit: Debt issued by a company in order for it to raise capital used to invest.
Listed equity: Shares in companies that are listed on a stock exchange so that they can be bought or sold.
Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions: Greenhouse gas emissions are categorised into three groups or ‘Scopes’.

- Scope 1 covers direct emissions e.g. use of natural gas, company car vehicle emissions.
- Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam and heating.
- Scope 3 includes 15 other categories of indirect emissions in a company’s value chain e.g. business travel and investments.
Stewardship: Use of influence to maximise overall long-term value including the value of common economic, social and environmental assets, on which returns and clients’ and beneficiaries’ interests depend.

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Invest

Our investment strategy focuses on three key areas, decarbonising the portfolio, effective stewardship of our assets and investing in climate solutions.