Our Vision For Sustainability

Successful businesses must always act responsibly. And being responsible means we need to have a sustainable vision and live out that vision in everything we do.

But why is sustainability important for a huge financial services group like Legal & General that manages around £1 trillion of investments and looks after the financial security of millions of people?

We know that because of our size and influence we can make a real difference towards the UN achieving many of their 17 sustainable development goals.

We are major investors in most of the biggest public companies in the developed world and many companies in emerging markets. That gives us a special position where we are able to influence the behaviour of the boards of all of those companies so that they act responsibly in areas such as action on climate change and gender equality.

We also have a clear responsibility to invest our funds in a sustainable way that benefits all people right across society. This means that goals such as generating decent work and economic growth, renewing infrastructure and communities, and reducing financial inequality are at the heart of our business strategy.

Taking action on climate change is one of our four key sustainability goals. As well as ensuring that the companies we invest in take carbon reduction seriously we have also set ourselves challenging goals to reduce our own carbon footprint. We can also make a real impact in how we invest money to improve society. We are taking action on urban regeneration, ensuring that communities can thrive in a sustainable way, with better transport links and cleaner energy sources. Our homebuilding schemes need to meet rigorous standards to ensure that every new home uses environmentally sound building materials and is able to help people to have a fully sustainable lifestyle.

Ensuring that people have decent jobs that contribute to the good of society and live in decent homes are seen by many as fundamental rights. We have put over £16 billion into direct investments such as urban regeneration, housing, clean energy and supporting small businesses which are at the heart of job creation. We have focused many of our housing developments on affordable homes and homes to rent, aiming to benefit people who have found it difficult to purchase new homes.

Supporting the development of clean energy to eliminate the use of fossil fuels is one of our major investment goals. We have helped finance both offshore and onshore wind generation schemes and have also invested in solar energy plants.

As a financial services provider we are dedicated to improving the financial resilience of people throughout society and ending financial exclusion where the poorest people do not have access to decent pensions, a basic level of savings and insurance against unforeseen events. This means that we work closely with governments to ensure that financial services products are accessible through price and distribution to people in the widest wealth groups.

We are proud that sustainability is so important in our own strategy. What we also want to do is to change the attitudes of our industry, influence governments and inspire other people to invest sustainably to improve everyone’s future.