Is ethical investing too difficult?

According to a recent survey from Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP), only one in six employees say that investing ethically is an important factor when investing over the long term, even though the findings from a recent survey of 10,000 UK employees showed that about three quarters of respondents say they would want to avoid investing in companies involved in certain unethical practices.

The survey also found that typically less than 5% of a defined contribution (DC) scheme’s assets are invested in ethical investment offerings. The findings showed instead that two-thirds of respondents cited ease of access and the ability to change investments easily as the most important factors to consider when investing money over the medium to long term.

These findings also match with our own survey results from November 2021, where although respondents showed appetite for ESG investing, over half (53%) were not aware of what funds their company pensions were invested in.

The LCP and TPO articles relating to the surveys both made similar recommendations – more knowledge and clear guidance for investors would help remove some of the factors which prevent people from investing ethically.

Read more about the results of our second annual ESG investing survey in our article, ‘68% of UK investors want their pension in sustainable and responsible companies’. 

To find out more about ESG investing, listen back to our 'ESG: Investing in our future' webinar, where we visited the key principles of ESG, and looked at the factors, both political and commercial, that are changing the dynamics of investing whilst tackling the ever-growing risks of climate change. 

The information in this article is correct as of 27/09/2022.