Young Achiever refuses Tasplan-sponsored award over fossil fuel investment concerns

Zowie Douglas-Kinghorn, 23, made the principled stand at Thursday night's award ceremony, and while thankful for being offered the recognition, she said she wanted to make sure the company wasn't "putting our future at risk".

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"I don't believe in giving awards if you're not prepared to invest in young people's futures, and I'm not sure whether Tasplan invest in fossil fuel companies, but I need to know that they don't before I can accept this award," she said during the ceremony.

On Friday, the company made contact with Ms Douglas-Kinghorn to arrange a meeting to discuss its investment practices.

An analysis of Tasplan funds found a managed holding which had a cap of 10 per cent for revenue from coal and gas investment.

However, Tasplan was the first Tasmanian super fund to sign up to the United Nations principles for responsible lending in 2009. It also "monitors research into effects and potential risks of climate change" and develops investment responses with this in mind, the company said in a statement.

Ms Douglas-Kinghorn said it was crucial to keep putting the pressure on until change happened.

"If companies, or if the community, wants to support young people and support change and a safe climate future, we have to be putting our money where our mouth is," she said.

"What I hear is that we're going to keep on investing until the last minute. If we do that, we're going to lose out on the future for young people.

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"Companies like Tasplan can make such a difference by investing their super and using that to make a positive change."

Ms Douglas-Kinghorn has agreed to a meeting with Tasplan, and said those discussions would determine if she ultimately accepted the award.

Tasplan chair Naomi Edwards said it was supportive of Ms Douglas-Kinghorn's position.

"We support Zoe's goals of swift action on climate change," she said.

"Tasplan, along with a number of other large Australian industry super funds, are active in using our share ownership to influence society for the better. We would welcome the opportunity to talk to Zoe about how this works and gets real outcomes.

"Our swift action recently in regard to Rio Tinto's destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters is a good example of our ESG policy in action where we seek to influence company behaviour when it falls significantly short of community expectations."

Ms Douglas-Kinghorn was offered the award based on her work launching the Switched On Schools program and forming the Student Climate Action Network which organised protests in Tasmania.