Action 020: Find Out How Your Money is Invested
In keeping with my commitment to implement We Are What We Do actions, I elected to write about Action 020 - find out how your money is invested - featured in Change the World for a Fiver. This was largely prompted by 1) a recent New York Times article Gas Emissions Rarely Figure in Investor Decisions and 2) a visit with my investment advisor a couple of weeks ago. Now I actually know how my money is invested because approximately 4 years ago I made a choice and switched my investments to funds that met both my ethical and performance criteria. I continue to learn more about responsible investing and the global economic impact we each have the potential to make. There are lots of very good and current resources including Corporate Knights 2007 Investment Issue (go straight to p.38 for the SRI fund ranking). When I think about putting my money to work for me, it is merely a means of allowing me to do good things with it that adds value to the world. So investing responsibly ensures that I am not generating personal wealth at the expense of the earth or others’ quality of life (such things can no longer be considered externalities.) The world is definitely moving in this direction. In fact, major financial institutions such as Royal Bank of Canada have launched a series of socially responsible funds geared toward those clients who wish to see green and be green all at the same time. 
Filed under: Inspired Living
