Make My Money Matter Showcases the Power of Greening Your Pension

Make My Money Matter is letting pension savers across the UK know they have a hidden superpower in the fight against climate change: their pension. The new campaign brings to life research conducted by Make My Money Matter, Aviva and Route2 showing that making your pension go green is the most effective action individuals can take to save our planet.

Greening your pension is a staggering 21x more powerful at cutting your carbon footprint than stopping flying, becoming a vegetarian and moving to a renewable energy provider combined. The 21x stat is used as the campaign centre point - brought to life by illustration - and launches with a Guardian Media partnership this Saturday. 

Make My Money Matter believes it is vital that individuals continue to take steps to reduce their climate impact, but also make sure their money complements those efforts, rather than undermine them. The research findings show that there is an untapped superpower at the disposal of savers across the UK, who can harness their pension as the single most effective tool in the fight against climate change - and one that is often overlooked. The campaign is encouraging pension savers to harness this power by contacting their provider and asking them to achieve net zero emissions.

Commenting on the research Richard Curtis, co-founder of Make My Money Matter said: “We have taken real collective steps in our society to become greener in our day-to-day lives. However, I helped create Make My Money Matter after being alerted to the fact that our pensions could be undoing all of our hard work without us even knowing. These findings confirm just how important our money is in the fight against climate change. In fact, our pensions are the most powerful weapon we have to help protect the planet.

“We need the entire UK pensions industry to go green – making their default funds more sustainable so all savers can have a pension to be proud of. As individuals, we have a critical role to play in driving this change by showing providers that we want our money invested in a way that does good, not harm and, so that we can retire into a world that isn’t on fire.

“That’s why we are calling on all UK savers to take the 21x challenge and ask their provider to go green in 2021, meaning that their scheme is committed to urgent carbon reduction targets, halving emissions this decade, and actively investing in solutions that help save our planet.”

Mother added: “We know the vast majority of people are keen to help the planet, they’ll change many parts of their life, often things they’ll notice on a daily basis, and that’s fantastic. We want to make sure they amplify this positive behaviour by doing something simple yet devastatingly effective - and by changing how people think about managing their pension from ‘boring’ to ‘powerful against climate change’ is a great start.”