"We are here to transform the retirement and savings space with purpose-led products that support the financial prosperity and wellbeing of millions of people around the world. While achieving this, we are mindful to take measures to minimise our environmental impact and operate responsibly with effective governance."  – Rowena Humphreys, Sustainability Director, Smart

Our approach to sustainability is an extension of our mission:

to transform retirement, savings and financial wellbeing, across all generations, around the world.

This mission has huge importance for current and future stakeholders and has given clear direction in our journey towards sustainability.

The global retirement savings gap is projected to rise to around US$400 trillion by 2050¹. Alongside an ageing population and retirement system reforms, responsibility increasingly falls on individuals, rather than the state, to save toward their future. As a result, we anticipate that more people will continue to work later into their lives and transition gradually into retirement.

“Retirement savings gap” – the shortfall between the amount of money needed for a comfortable life in retirement and the actual amount of money saved by individuals in advance.

We play a pivotal role in closing the retirement savings gap by helping people to save more, better understand their financial situation and live better lives both today and in the future. Our technology removes barriers to saving and improves the financial wellbeing of some traditionally underserved and excluded groups.

We enable retirement savers to understand their savings and invest in ways that align with their needs and values. And our approach, including through the investment strategy of our master trust, means we can attract responsible partners and investors. This fuels our growth without creating unnecessary environmental burden, and helps us keep changing our industry for the better.

Pensions and retirement savings have a significant role in shaping a sustainable future. By providing digital access, enhancing risk management and prioritising good governance, we are actively contributing to a better future for our valued clients and generations to follow.

This report outlines actions we have taken and will take to make our sustainability ambitions a reality. We want to close the retirement savings gap, while tackling climate change and bringing wider benefits to both our colleagues and society more broadly. These are big goals, and we consider achieving them to be crucial to our success.

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¹ https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_White_Paper_We_Will_Live_to_100.pdf