Vanguard

How ethical and sustainable is Vanguard? 
Vanguard, which can be found in The Good Shopping Guide’s Ethical Pensions Ratings Table, The company receives one of the lowest ratings not only in the Pensions sector, but throughout our entire research, and has therefore got a long way to go to meet our ethical standards.

More information on the necessity of ethical pensions may be found in our article on Ethical Pension Companies. Then, in our Ethical Pension Rating Table, you can compare it to other Pension providers.

What does Vanguard do?

Vanguard began in 1975 by John C. Bogle created a better way to manage a mutual fund company. Vanguard is a UK pension provider owned by The Vanguard Group Inc. that offers specialised pension services, different financial funding services such as ISA accounts, general accounts and financial planning.

For which criteria does Vanguard perform poorly? 

Vanguard receives a low rating in the majority of our research categories, including a bottom rating for Environmental Destruction, Irresponsible Lending and Political Donations.

Amazon Watch’s 2022 Complicity in Destruction IV report revealed Vanguard as one of the top 40 investors in companies linked to Amazon deforestation and breaches of Indigenous rights, providing millions to environmentally destructive companies; you can read more on this environmental degradation here.

The pension provider has also been accused of financing nuclear weapons companies, allegedly contributing a total of $352.2 million in recent years.

In what areas does Vanguard score well for its ethics?

Vanguard receives a high score for its Environmental Report, due to its public information on its sustainability efforts and environmental targets. This reflects that Vanguard is aiming to make progress on its environmental record in the future.

How can Vanguard improve its Ethical Rating?
The Ethical Rating of a brand is divided into three categories by The Good Shopping Guide: the Environment, People and Animals.

Vanguard may improve its rating and fulfill our fundamental ethical requirements by working on the research categories in which it receives a bottom or middle rating.

Explore The Good Shopping Guide’s Ethical Accreditation if you work for or with an ethical brand, or a brand seeking to improve its CSR, sustainability policies or business ethics. This certification of sustainability and ethics has benefited the Pension provider Aviva.

Contact us to learn more, or complete our short form for an initial ethical evaluation.