Our environmental impact

At Rathbones, we recognise our responsibility to contribute to the transition and we are focused on measuring and reducing our operational footprint as well as that of our investment portfolios. It is our responsibly to understand how every cog in the Rathbones wheel is affecting the planet. 

For our clients, we have a responsibility to understand how climate change may impact our portfolios and what we can do to minimise the risks, be they physical or transitional. We believe that to deliver our best for our stakeholders we must, think, act and invest for everyone's tomorrow. One aspect of this is the commitment we made public in 2021, to achieve net zero emissions across the group by 2050 or sooner.

Carbon offsetting programme

We are committed to reducing our operational footprint on an annual basis. We recognise the need to compensate for our residual emissions and therefore continue to offset our operational footprint (excluding supply chain) in partnership with Climate Impact Partners. We identify nature-based projects which align their impact with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and are certified by internationally accredited bodies.

As we operationalise our net zero commitments, we are considering our long-term approach to carbon removal. We have already shifted our annual offsetting to nature-based solutions and will work with partners to put projects in place that will allow us to expand our removal capability, initially covering our operational footprint and then expanding to cover our supply chain from 2030. 

To learn more about or approach in 2022 see page 5 of our responsible business update.

Reporting our progress

As part of our commitment to transparency, we will share updates on our progress through our annual reporting. As a business we continued to support CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project), both as an investor and as a responding business. Our score of B reflected the inclusion of our net zero commitment and associated near-term targets. 

We support the work of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). A summary is included in our annual report and we produce a standalone document to communication our alignment to the eleven recommendations. 

Allied to the work being undertaken by our business to integrate environmental, social and governance data into our investment decisions and engagement process we have created a cross-functional team to oversee our approach. The responsible business committee has oversight of both our responsible investment programme and our environmental programme and supports their interaction as well as approving our TCFD, Principles for Responsible Investment PRI and CDP disclosures. 

For more information read our responsible business report and our group climate statement.

Following the outcomes of the climate talks in Glasgow (COP26 in 2021), and the continued strengthening of commitments from governments and regulators supporting the transition to a net zero emissions economy, the need for business to understand and act with regard to our climate impact will continue to grow. Our focus remains:

  • operationalising our net zero emissions plan, including the engagement of our suppliers
  • review of our data collection process, both operational and for our investment exposure
  • expansion of our reporting on the financial implications of climate change to include a broader client population.
Images