The change starts with you!
Many people like to save some of their income for the future, and investing is one possible approach.
If you decide to do this, how can you be sure that your money isn't supporting companies that don't align with your values? Check out the resources below to find out!
Some great organisations to help you with your decision making are below:
Find out what your bank is doing with your money and find a bank that invests aligned with your values. They only review U.S banks and credit unions currently. They pull together information from publicly reported data, financial institution websites, and surveys. You can check if your institution is certified as sustainable, if they invest in low-income communities, if they do small business lending, if it is women or minority-owned, and much more.
Auxiliary topics that are worth checking out!
The following resources about fossil fuel divestment were prepared by our partner @SriEvent. Check out @SriEvent website for more resources, news, #LiveTweeting, and more.
Unburnable Carbon: Are the World’s Financial Markets Carrying a Carbon Bubble? -The original report released in 2011 by Carbon Tracker that codified the concepts of "stranded assets" and "carbon bubble" from which the fossil fuel divestment movement and campaign started
Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math - This article by Bill McKibben published on Rollingstone.com in 2012 triggered the fossil fuel divestment movement and campaign first in US college campuses and then across the world
Laudato si' encyclical letter (in particular: par.26, par.165) - Pope Francis' so-called "green" encyclical that stressed the urgent need to progressively phase out fossil fuels and inspired the Catholic world to act on climate through divestment
Fossil Fuel Divestment Act - The law that in 2016 made Ireland the first country in the world to divest from fossil fuels
LD99 - An Act To Require the State To Divest Itself of Assets Invested in the Fossil Fuel Industry - The law that in 2021 made the Main State the first in the US to divest from fossil fuels
Harvard Will Move to Divest its Endowment from Fossil Fuels - The moment Harvard University, the richest on earth, in 2021 committed to divest from fossil fuels in practice after a decade of resistance to one of the longest, strongest and most iconic divestment campaigns in the world, carried out by its students
Invest-Divest 2021 report - A decade of progress towards a just climate future (released October 26, 2021)
Divestment Database - The database of fossil fuel divestment commitments made by institutions worldwide
350.org - This US-based non-profit, climate activist organization was co-founded by Bill McKibben and represents the heart of the fossil fuel divestment movement and campaign ("350" stands for 350 parts per million, which is the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere considered safe by scientists)
Laudato si' Movement - Formerly the Global Catholic Climate Movement. They have a great section on Divestment. This is a coalition of Catholic institutions and organizations from across the world committed to acting on climate, being inspired by Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato si', which is linked above
DivestInvest - A global network of organizations committed to divest from fossil fuels and (re)invest in climate solutions in order to tackle the climate crisis
The Fossil fuel Non-proliferation Treaty - A global initiative launched in 2020 to phase out fossil fuels and support a just transition through an internationally binding treaty modeled on the historical Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
In terms of Sustainable Finance, this refers to how shareholders are using their collective power to force companies to make organizational and operational changes through the use of engagement, shareholder resolutions, public advocacy, and more.
Some organizations working in this space are below. These groups are helping the average shareholder take collective action to change the way public companies are behaving.
Separating the green from the greenwashers
MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International) ESG Ratings - The ESG rating system of one of the biggest and most trusted financial companies.
