Smart Pensions has confirmed that the majority (71 per cent) of its master trust default investment strategy assets are now invested in portfolios with a “strict” environmental, social and governance (ESG) assessment.

The master trust has also announced plans to move its global HQ to an all-electric office building in the West End of London, which will be operationally carbon zero from day one.

The grouppreviously announced that it was targeting net zero "well ahead" of 2050, with an interim commitment to half its carbon emissions by 2030, in line with the Paris Agreement.

The master trust also recently incorporated private market illiquid into its default strategy, after developing a new solution in partnership with Natixis Investment Managers to open up the potential benefits of illiquids to its members.

Smart Pension managing director, Paul Bucksey, said: “With the success of industry action groups such as Make My Money Matter, and from our own research, we know that our members are increasingly looking at what their pensions savings are doing as they accumulate.

“As a top priority for Smart Pension, we will be introducing many more responsible investment initiatives over the coming months. It’s our responsibility to make sure that our members’ money not only gives them a great return in retirement but is working for the planet too in the meantime.”

Adding to this, Smart Pension head of investment proposition, James Lawrence, noted that the increased allocation to the Future World funds in particular show "real strides" on the journey to net zero, given the temperature reduction aims embedded into the funds.

"We’ll continue to innovate with our investment solution, to ensure we are reaching our net zero goal in a market leading, yet robust, way," she added.

The update comes amid renewed calls from Make My Money Matter for the government to make net zero mandatory for all UK pension schemes and providers at COP26, after research revealed that UK pension scheme investments are funding £330m tonnes of carbon emissions annually.

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