Faith Ward receives MBE

We are delighted that Faith Ward has been awarded an MBE “for services to pensions and the environment” – deserved recognition of her extraordinary contribution to Responsible Investment.

The UK Honours list was published in The Gazette over the weekend.

“Congratulations to Faith – we are completely unsurprised but incredibly proud,” said Laura Chappell, CEO at Brunel. “It’s an exceptional accolade for someone in Responsible Investment, given its recent rise to prominence. Faith has more than merited it.”

Faith worked at the Environment Agency from 1997, and she assumed a focus on RI when she moved to the Environment Agency Pension Fund. It became the first asset owner globally to publish a plan to invest for a temperature rise of under 2°C vs pre-industrial levels – ahead of the Paris Agreement.

In 2017, Faith joined Brunel as Chief RI Officer – at a time when there were only a handful of such positions across the UK. During her time at Brunel, she has overseen the launch of our RI, Climate Change, Stewardship, and Voting Policies; our pledges on climate and Net Zero; the creation of our RI Strategy; two Climate Stocktakes; the launch of new Paris-aligned passive indices; and the detailed, complex work of integrating RI right along the investment chain – including in private markets. There is much more that could be listed.

Since 2020, Faith has been Chair of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC). During that time, among a range of initiatives, the IIGCC has launched the Paris Aligned Asset Owners Commitment and the Net Zero Investment Framework (which Brunel helped to develop and launch) – the first comprehensive investor framework for achieving net-zero carbon emissions. The IIGCC today has 400 members across 27 countries, representing more than €65 trillion in assets.

Faith co-founded the Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI), which provides free-to-use information harnessed by investors globally (>$80trn of assets) to assess companies’ readiness for the transition to a low-carbon economy; she remains a Non-Executive Director.

She is admired and respected across Brunel, across the pensions industry, and across finance more broadly, as a pioneer and world expert on Responsible Investment. Faith is a regular speaker at the COP events.

“Over the past two decades Faith has been one of the most important influences within the UK and international investment community driving responsible investment practices and investment action on climate change,” said Adam Matthews, Chief RI Officer at the Church of England Pensions Board, and a long-time leader and ally in climate investing.

“She has however, never taken the easy route to doing this and instead methodically examined all aspects of the financial system that relate to pension funds and sought to engage them in challenging investment norms that fail to account for key systemic risks.  From actuaries and accountants to pension advisers and the regulators Faith has relentlessly sought to develop common understanding, define best practices and establish new approaches.  Specifically, her aim has been to ensure the risks posed to pensions and society at large from climate change and other long term systemic risks can be embedded into a better way of investing.  As a result of her efforts significant capital has been allocated into supporting the climate transition, pension fund trustees have made better decisions and, most importantly, real-world impacts have ensued both for those receiving their pensions and for the world into which they will retire.”

Faith is currently abroad as part of her RI work. She will be back in the UK for London Climate Week.