Discovery Research

Accelerating the shift towards sustainable investing

BT

The concept of investing in companies with strong long term environmental, social and governance practices has long been an accepted investment theme, yet despite a large proportion of retail investors being interested in sustainable investing few have actually invested their money this way.

Objective

Overcoming barriers to ethical and environmentally conscious investing

To close the gap between ethical intention and action, BT engaged Sandbox to help them understand the barriers that private investors and their advisers face to sustainable investing and come up with ideas to increase participation.

Approach

Understanding the range of required solutions

Sandbox interviewed customers and advisers about their experience with sustainable investing. We used visual prompts to elicit feedback about possible solutions to make the shift towards sustainable investing more desirable, and observed how different levels of ethical conviction might influence an investor’s decisions about where and how to invest.

“My view is that one person’s sustainability is another person’s planet killer”

Investor

“Put the onus on me to decide what impact I want to have”

Investor
Outcome

Strategies and services to encourage sustainable investing

BT was able to leverage the insights into a collection of initiatives ranging from product and platform innovations to customer marketing communications and new financial advice support services.

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