Rathbones sustainability score: 34/100
Better than 47% of Financial Services / Banking
Making progress starts at 46. The highest score on SINK is 71.
Rathbones Group is a London-listed wealth and asset manager, providing investment management and financial planning to private clients, charities and advisers, including through its Greenbank ethical investment team. It reported £923.3 million of operating income for 2025, with about 3,406 employees.
Founded 1971Head office London, United KingdomStaff ~3,406 (2025)Revenue £923.3 million operating income (headline line; FY ended 31 Dec 2025; 2024: £895.9m)Website ↗
Rathbones reports a 24% cut in its own Scope 1 and 2 emissions against 2023, but the carbon intensity of its investments rose to 36.7 per $m invested in 2025 from 33.5 in 2024, and 13.5% of holdings were rated strongly misaligned. Its financed emissions figure covers 73.7% of holdings and only their Scope 1 and 2, its own fossil fuel policy says it invests directly in oil and gas, and its nature work is at an early stage.
Rathbones scores 34/100 (Below expectations) on SINK's independent climate assessment, scored from public data only. Scores are free. Nobody can pay to change a score, speed it up or hide it. Last verified November 2026.
That places Rathbones joint 631st of 1,070 companies scored, and joint 31st of 69 in Financial Services / Banking.
What is Rathbones doing well, and where does it fall short?
Strongest on Carbon Footprint: Operations and Transparency & Accountability (7/10, 7/10). Weakest on Water Impact and Nature & Biodiversity Impact (2/10, 3/10).
Where Rathbones lost points
For each question that lost points, the evidence our public rubric looks for that we didn't find.
What would raise this score
- Its effect on waterMonitor its water use and take measures to reduce it.
- Its effect on natureAssess its effect on nature and publish a basic environmental policy.
- How it uses materials and handles wasteShow active waste reduction, reuse or repair.
Every question that lost points
- Emissions from its own operations7/10Its own emissions aren't independently verified or tracked over several years.
- Emissions from its supply chain4/10Most of its supply-chain (Scope 3) emissions aren't measured.
- Whether its emissions are falling4/10No evidence of a year-on-year fall in its total emissions.
- How clean its energy is6/10Less than 90% of its energy shown to be renewable.
- Its effect on nature3/10No assessment of its effect on nature, and no basic environmental policy.
- How it uses materials and handles waste3/10No active waste reduction, reuse or repair shown.
- Its effect on water2/10No monitoring of water use, or no measures to reduce it.
- Its climate targets6/10Its targets aren't validated by the Science Based Targets initiative.
- How openly it reports7/10No annual impact report, or no pay linked to climate targets.
- Its record on controversies5/10Points deducted for controversies or its business model. The finding is under question 10.
A score changes when the evidence does. We use new published evidence at the next rescore. Anyone can send us new evidence, free. How to send it.
How is Rathbones's SINK score calculated?
Same ten questions for every company. No private weighting.
SINK = (0.3 × Base + 0.7 × Performance) × ScaleWhat evidence is Rathbones's score based on?
10 sources used in this assessment. All publicly available. Each row shows which of the ten questions it informed.
40% of them were published by Rathbones itself; the rest come from independent sources.
“In 2025, 89% of our purchased energy was renewable.”
“9.0 (down from 10.7 in 2024)”
“Responsible business review”
“Any financed emissions data used to calculate our footprint are restricted to the inclusion of scope 1 and 2 emissions from investee companies only.”
“Rathbone Greenbank Investments has detailed its plan to become a net zero emissions business by 2040, with the wider business aiming for 2050.”
“Rathbones primarily has exposure to fossil fuels through direct investment in the equities and fixed income securities of oil and gas companies”
“include Amundi, Scottish Widows, Rathbones Group and Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management”
“include Amundi, Scottish Widows, Rathbones Group, and Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management”
“Matt Crossman, Stewardship Director at Rathbones Group says”
“Rathbones' 'Votes Against Slavery' backed by £3trn investors”
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How does Rathbones compare with other financial services / banking companies?
Where Rathbones sits among financial services / banking peers.
Among the 69 major financial services / banking brands we've scored, Rathbones is tied =31st of 69, with 6 others.
Who scores higher in Financial Services / Banking?
The 3 companies in the sector scoring nearest above Rathbones.
Barclays operates with operational emissions under control but finances fossil fuels at scale—$34–35bn annually—undercutting climate commitments.
See the breakdown →M&G manages £375.9B in assets while holding £1.5B in coal exposure and material fossil-fuel investments.
See the breakdown →Octopus Group does not publish the emissions it finances on the standard PCAF basis, so the financial-sector size deduction applies; the figure it gives, about 242,000 tCO2e, halved mainly because £2.8 billion of funds moved to another manager.
See the breakdown →Which companies moved this week, and why.
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