A sustainability-focused UK trustee working group is determined to drive change in climate change-related reporting, sustainable investment perceptions, and product offering this year.
Formed at the end of 2024, the Trustee Sustainability Working Group (TSWG) is a group of professional trustees, members of the Association of Nominated-Trustees, and other interested parties with an aim to accelerate good investment practice around sustainability across the UK pensions industry.
After spending time last year in conversation with trustees, investment consultants, regulators and policymakers, it is going into 2026 “determined to drive change”, it said.
A key goal for the group is to refine sustainability reporting, which it considers takes up too many resources for too little gain. It wants reporting to be proportionate to each pension scheme and practical to implement, so it can go “from a compliance requirement into a meaningful driver for positive impact”.
A specific change TSWG members are working for is the scrapping of the requirement for implementation statements – describing stewardship and voting activity – for small schemes.
The Department for Work and Pensions was expected to outline changes to pension scheme reporting based on the Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosures last year, but this has not yet happened.
The TSWG is also represented on The Pension Regulator’s transition plan working group, which is working with industry to develop a voluntary net-zero transition plan template suitable for occupational pension schemes. Last year, the government consulted on potential transition plan requirements for investors and companies.
The trustee group said it will this year also prioritise work to demonstrate that “sustainable investment is a financially sound, practical strategy that serves the best long-term interests of pension members”.
It claimed an estimated 70–80% of trustees and consultants currently view sustainability as a tick-box exercise.
The TSWG is also concerned that small pension schemes’ ability to participate in sustainable investing is improved, and said it is working across the investment ecosystem to ensure that scalable solutions are provided for pension funds of all sizes.
