Make My Money Matter Delivers Hard Pension Truths about Deforestation

Today, Make My Money Matter  launches a campaign to expose the links between UK pensions and deforestation. A shocking £2 in every £10 of an average UK pension is linked to deforestation, but savers are often totally unaware their money is contributing to habitat destruction.

An overwhelming majority (77%) of UK savers would be unhappy to discover their pension was funding deforestation, yet in total £300bn in our pensions are invested in companies identified as high risk for deforestation. 

The Mother-created campaign brings the impact of an individual’s pension home in a comedic fly-on-the-wall film. In it we see a couple receiving an unexpected and oversized delivery of a Deforester5000 and several large chainsaws. 

Perplexed by this arrival at their front door, the couple insist that they didn’t order any products related to deforestation. It resolves with the info that “For every £10 you put in your pension, £2 is linked to deforestation - if your pension funds deforestation, so do you” with a link to take action to cut deforestation from your pension.

Richard Curtis, co-founder at Make My Money Matter commented: “There’s an old saying ‘If a tree falls in a forest, and no-one hears, does it actually make a sound?’. Suddenly this old saying has become one of the world’s most important questions. 

“Because while we may not see the forests falling or hear the trees crashing, we are all connected to deforestation. We’re connected as consumers, as citizens, and as this film powerfully highlights, as pension holders too. Because it’s our money – managed through our pensions – that’s being invested in companies driving deforestation, damaging the environment, and threatening lives and livelihoods across the planet. 

“But it doesn’t have to be this way. If pension funds commit to cutting deforestation from our portfolios – and our money is cleverly and massively applied to support the industries and business that are restoring, not jeopardising, our natural environment - both profits and the planet can come out on top. 

“That’s why now is the moment to make our money matter and to cut deforestation from our pensions for good. Now is the moment to hear the tree falling in the woods and take heroic action to protect our planet.” 

One of the key aims of the campaign is to encourage company pension schemes  to adopt  sustainable investments - including those without deforestation. Late in 2021, MMMM’s creative agency, Mother, committed to the sustainable pension pledge by signing up to the campaign group’s Green Pensions Charter.. 

To coincide with the launch of this campaign, all of Mother’s pension investments have been switched to sustainable funds.