Many customers tell us that they are interested in investing in a way that aims to reduce harm, as well as having an objective to grow the money they invest. They tell us this when we carry out customer research.

When we use the words responsible investing it means looking at environmental, social and governance factors when deciding where to invest money. This is shortened to say ESG investing.  It means looking at how a company is managing ESG risks and opportunities and how that could affect its financial performance over the long term.

Risks

Might include investment in companies involved in an activity like tobacco production.

Opportunities

Might include investment in companies that develop green technology.

There are lots of ways you can invest responsibly. We explain what the options are on our responsible investment page.

New UK rules will help you to compare some types of responsible investments 

Investment managers can have different views on what makes a fund responsible or sustainable. This can make it hard for you to compare options and decide where to invest. 

New UK rules for investment managers will help you compare investments. The rules come into effect on 2 December 2024. 

The rules introduce four labels: 

Sustainability Impact

Sustainability Improvers
Sustainability Focus

Sustainability Mixed Goals

 

If an investment manager wants to use words like sustainable, sustainability or impact to describe their fund, they will usually have to demonstrate strong sustainability standards, apply for a label and display it on documents about the fund. 

If an investment has a label, you can be confident that it has been measured against certain evidence required to meet its label. 

To understand more about what we mean in Standard Life when we talk about responsible investment, you can check our jargon buster. 

The rules only apply to certain types of investments 

  They do apply to many funds managed by external investment managers based in the UK.

  But they don’t apply to our internal unit-linked funds, lifestyle profiles or funds based outside the UK although we do invest responsibly.

Investments with a label will have to share extra information

Managers of labelled investments have to share information with you about the fund’s sustainability aims and measures. This is called a sustainability disclosure. 

Fund managers have until December 2024 at the latest to apply for labels and publish their sustainability disclosures or to make suitable changes, but they can start now. 

Some fund managers may publish a sustainability disclosure, even though they don’t apply for a sustainability label. 

We’re currently working on a way to make this information accessible from December 2024. 

If you want to find out if a fund has a label or a sustainability disclosure ahead of the deadline, you can contact us using the details below.

As part of Phoenix Group, we’re on a journey to becoming net zero by 2050. Find out how we’ll continue to support a better financial future for our customers, while considering our investment in carbon-emitting sectors, in our Net Zero Transition Plan. Standard Life is part of Phoenix Group and the data shown is for the combined Phoenix Group.