Should, and if so how, should non-financial institution companies measure scope 3 category 15 investments

Good afternoon.

Shoosmiths is a law firm.

I joined the UN Global Compact Network UK webinar 13.4.22 that was focusing on scope 3 category 15 - investments with speakers from Schroders as well as SBTi.

Shoosmiths has SBTi validated near term targets and is in the final stages of considering a proposed net zero target year and underpinning actions to achieve net zero status.

My query is should Shoosmiths be measuring emissions associated with the two pension schemes it provides employees – both are run on Shoosmiths’ behalf by pension providers. Shoosmiths pays an employer contribution for staff contributing to their pension schemes.

I would be grateful for clarification if firms like Shoosmiths should be measuring pensions in some way and if so how.

Would it be sufficient for instance to ensure we have included data from the two pensions providers under the scope 3 category 1 purchased goods and services, i.e. supply chain? Our supply chain emissions are currently based on supplier spend and we have started asking suppliers for primary data (e.g. their scope 1 and 2 emissions).

I would be very grateful for your steer as to what we should be doing now before we finalise our planned target year and actions. Ie is it reasonable to treat pension providers as suppliers so that data is covered under goods and services suppliers or is there a protocol or guidance we should be following to specifically calculate category 15 investments?