Sir, I wanted to take the time to highlight what to me seems a glaring omission from the 'Assessing your pension options'1 article that was featured in BDJ In Practice this month, an issue in which you lead with the editorial 'The sustainability of sustainability'.2

Having recently audited our carbon footprint through ZeroBees, I can say that for the last financial year our carbon footprint was 104 tCO2e (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, the metric used to capture the footprint from carbon and other greenhouse gases in one simple number). Of this 104 tCO2e, 51.8 tonnes was attributed to our pensions, more specifically the vast majority of this was my (the principal dentist) pension with a well-known pensions provider for professionals. Startling, this provider has lots of glossy brochures about their drive to become more sustainable, whilst simultaneously investing the majority of my money into companies in the fossil fuel industry.

The significance of this cannot be overstated. Nearly half of a busy three surgery dental practices' carbon footprint, was from one person's pension investment.

I'm 36 years old, I've not built up a big pension pot, yet the impact it's having on the planet is devastating. I'm in the process of moving my pension through an IFA that provide 'impact investing', that is they carefully select places to invest money in areas that have a positive impact on the planet. This may be a step too far for some people, and so I want to leave you with one guiding principle for anyone seeking to invest their money, in a pension or otherwise. Make sure the investment fund is fossil fuel free.

It's clear that fossil fuel free doesn't necessarily mean good for the planet, we should aim to avoid investing in the resource extraction and industrial sectors. However, for the purposes of keeping things simple in the area of financial investments that most dentists, myself included, don't understand, let's keep our money invested in funds that are fossil fuel free.