UK – The UK's recently rebranded responsible investment charity ShareAction has revealed its big plans for the coming months.
Despite changing its name from FairPensions to ShareAction to reflect the wide range of investors and asset owners it works with, UK pension funds remain at the heart of many of its campaigns.
Catherine Howarth, chief executive of ShareAction, told IPE: "One of our major plans for 2013 is to conduct a survey of the UK's 25-30 largest occupational pension funds and rank their performance on responsible investment, member engagement and accountability to members and the public.
"Those funds operate at such a big scale that – although they have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of their members – their activities and decisions have spill-over effects on the broader public, the economy and the investment system at large."
The survey will take place in the summer, with results expected to be published by the end of the year.
ShareAction also plans to engage UK pension funds on their management of long-term risks associated with climate change and sustainability issues this autumn, which Howarth says is particularly financially material for younger pension savers.
She said: "The UK's pension providers have some way to go to mainstream analysis on climate risk into their investment decisions, asset allocation decisions and the way they engage as owners with companies in their portfolios.
"We want to encourage a pro-active, joined-up, coherent approach that unites different schemes because climate change is one of those systemic issues that any individual fund is going to struggle to tackle effectively on its own."
Howarth attributes the slow progress on climate change to the lack of knowledge of what to do and an overall lack of engagement with the topic by the investment-consulting world.
"There are some beginnings of positive change, but it partly is a generational problem," she said.
"A lot of trustees and advisors are from a generation when climate change risk was not a pressing risk. As a new generation comes into the industry and onto pension fund boards, there is going to be a stronger positive appetite to engage with climate change.
"Currently, the pensions industry is in a transition period where it does not fully understand the changes it needs to undergo to catch up with the realities of the future."
With regard to climate change, ShareAction is keen to engage with insurance companies, as they are investors themselves and already paying out for climate-related costs.
The charity also plans to attend the AGMs of about half of FTSE 100 companies to raise concerns regarding executive pay, living wages, company transparency on tax and environmental concerns.
"Tax avoidance is an issue of great concern to the public," said Howarth. "It has huge ramifications for the quality of life in developing countries and the build-up of good public infrastructure, which is necessary for economic development in poor countries.
"Another theme of questions will be on living wage standards.
"We have been running this campaign since 2011, and since then, 11 FTSE 100 companies have committed to introducing living wage standards for all the people they employ, including cleaning contractors, security contractors and catering contractors.
"The living wage is £8.55/hour in London and £7.44/hour in the rest of the UK, compared with the minimum wage of £6.19/hour.
"Paying the living wage means people working for the UK's largest companies can afford a basic but decent standard of living."
ShareAction will also raise operational risk and human rights issues at oil companies, which follows on from its Arctic drilling work.
A new issue for the charity in the wake of the horsemeat scandal is farm animal welfare, and the fact many UK food producers, retailers and restaurants have weak controls for monitoring their supply chains.
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