Legal & General : L&G Mastertrust launches new Sustainability Report, with expanded focus on nature and people

Legal & General ('L&G') and the Trustees of the L&G Mastertrust have published a new Sustainability Report, expanding the scope of the board's TCFD reporting requirements by incorporating disclosures on nature and people.

The report is the first of its kind in the Mastertrust sector, formally recognising the links that climate change has with nature and biodiversity loss, as well as people and society.

Covering the year up to 5 April 2024¹, the report details the ways in which climate and sustainability related risks and opportunities are considered across the Mastertrust's investment decisions and risk management approach. This includes an analysis of the actions taken by the Trustees of the Mastertrust, as well as Legal & General in its role as primary investment manager. Key findings include:

• Climate: All of the Mastertrust default funds have surpassed their 2025 decarbonisation pathway plan to reduce carbon emissions, with the Target Date Funds also at, or ahead of, their 2030 goals.
• Nature: For the first time, the Trustees have tasked L&G with analysing the Mastertrust's sector-level nature-related dependencies, initially assessing 10 critical sectors. The results of this can be found on p. 49 of the report.²
• People: L&G's Investment Stewardship team currently maintains policies related to human rights and diversity which apply to the Mastertrust default funds and Legal & General managed funds. With the launch of the Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD)³ in September 2024, the Trustees are reviewing the recommendations with a view to incorporating these into future Sustainability Reports. The Trustees also welcomed L&G's continued focus on the issue of pensions inequalities, including its work on the Ethnicity Pensions Gap⁴ in the UK and recent launch of a Shariah compliant investment proposition.⁵