Bruno Gardner, head of climate change and nature at UK life insurer Phoenix, wins this year's climate and sustainability champion of the year for his outstanding advocacy on climate action, amid strong headwinds and a disintegrating consensus about the wisdom of net-zero emissions goals.

His genuine passion for the topic is evident, as is his pragmatic approach to developing Phoenix's net-zero transition plan, coordinating its climate and nature disclosures, and leading a programme of thought leadership.

That pragmatism – and his appreciation that he's not always the expert – is partly down to his background, which he points out is "different from quite a few of my peers in this industry".

For example, his first taste of insurance came just three years ago, when he joined Phoenix in 2022, while many of his peers have had lengthy careers in financial services.

His track record in sustainability is longer. While working as a strategy consultant at McKinsey, where he spanned a range of sectors and clients, he says he concluded that the context of his work really mattered to him. His next move was to the Carbon Trust, a UK advisory firm that helps organisations and governments worldwide to reduce carbon emissions and prepare for a net-zero future.

“Sustainability felt then – and very much still feels today – like an existential challenge that we all face,” he says. The role at the Carbon Trust “was an opportunity to do something that I felt was really worthwhile and bring my skills to bear in a way that would allow me to add value”.

During eight years at the Carbon Trust he rose through the ranks to managing director for policy and innovation, then stepped away to work on clean energy and sustainability strategy for other organisations in the water, gas and farming sectors.

Different roles in different sectors, new learning curves and getting new projects off the ground “requires a degree of pragmatism and practicality” and “an acceptance that I'm rarely if ever the deepest expert in the room”.

Transition planning

Joining Phoenix has been another steep learning curve for Gardner. His “baptism of fire” was being tasked with responsibility for the insurer’s plan to transition to net-zero emissions by 2050, which was published six months after he joined.

“There was a huge stakeholder engagement exercise required to ensure that we were really comfortable and aligned behind a forward-looking commitment of what we were going to do in practice, which is quite different from setting a slightly intangible target 25 years from now.”

“The fact that I was new to Phoenix, new to the industry and have this background of working with lots of different stakeholders in different contexts set me up quite well for that,” he adds.

Engagement and advocacy

A second major strand of Gardner’s work has been on external engagement, advocacy and thought leadership.

One of Phoenix’s consistent messages is “we can't get to net zero alone. We are heavily dependent on a whole raft of other people, in particular governments, regulators and of course our investee companies,” he explains.

Thinking about those dependencies, and how Phoenix can use its scale and voice to make a difference, has been the starting point for Gardner’s work on thought leadership, which began with a first report two years ago on unlocking investment in climate solutions.

“Advocacy is such a powerful thing for an organisation like Phoenix, and it works particularly well when it's in conjunction with advocacy from other organisations who occupy similar positions to us in the UK economy. This is why we take such a collaborative approach,” he adds.

The current and previous governments have both been willing to engage with industry to design solutions to sustainability challenges, Gardner says, but he rightfully notes: “The proof's in the pudding. There are lots of works-in-progress that aren't yet quite over the line, and so we continue to work closely with government, doing whatever we can to ensure that whatever ultimately comes out of the things like the National Wealth Fund, GB Energy and DESNZ [Department for Energy Security and Net Zero] are as impactful as possible.”

Upcoming priorities

Phoenix’s transition plan will soon be back on Gardner’s desk again, as the firm prepares to publish its triennial update next year. “We will be trying to be more specific about what we’re going to be doing over the next three to five years to get to our 2030 targets,” he says.

He acknowledges that anti net-zero political headwinds in the UK threaten to blow these plans off course. “One of the key things we, as a sector, need to do is sift through the noise and make sure that we continue to be laser focused on the fundamentals – which really haven't changed.”

As the manager of nearly £300bn ($404bn) of assets, investments are a significant focus for Phoenix’s sustainability activities, and the firm will continue rolling out its customised decarbonisation benchmarks across its listed portfolio, engaging with investee companies and scaling up investment in climate solutions. “Over the last three years we’ve really started implementing action at scale, and so the next three years is largely about building on this momentum.”

For example, the group’s stewardship programme is reaching the end of its three-year engagement strategy, so is due to be renewed next year. “We’re currently looking at how it could evolve, for example building in additional themes relating to nature or the just transition.”

Scaling up investment in climate solutions will also continue to be a focus, but “we're still not seeing that pipeline of opportunities come through, so continuing our thought leadership and advocacy to overcome barriers and unlock greater investment will continue to be crucial,” he says.

There is also work to do regarding the Prudential Regulation Authority’s latest plans to raise the standard of climate risk management. “We think the financial impacts of physical climate risks are still understated in most models. So, what do we as a sector do about that? How do we address that in the absence of robust quantitative data?”

Then there is the question of nature risks, which are still lagging climate in terms of understanding and quantification, but have an equally important place on Gardner’s agenda.

Phoenix participated in the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures’ pilot of its Leap (Locate, Evaluate, Assess, Prepare) approach to reporting nature risks, and has built on that internally. “We want to continue on that journey, disclosing more on the actions we're taking on our two priority themes: land use change and deforestation; and freshwater use.”

He adds: “Climate and nature are really two sides of the same coin, and we will ultimately have an integrated approach to how we tackle them.”

Gardner has represented Phoenix on an array of industry bodies, such as the Transition Plan Taskforce and the Association of British Insurers’ climate change working group. In September, he was also elected to the board of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF).

He certainly seems to be fulfilling the two guiding principles for his career: “I want to make a positive difference in the world and I want to work with great people. That's been the litmus test of all of the different things I've done.”