Employees need access to sustainable investing
If a retirement plan doesn’t offer sustainable options, employees are being forced to assume the financial risks of unsustainable investing.
Retirement plans are still heavily invested in sustainability risks
Large investors like pension plans, university endowments, and insurance companies have started moving to make sure their portfolios are properly addressing sustainability risks like climate change, gun violence, racial justice, and gender inequality. But employer-offered retirement plans are not moving fast enough to shift towards sustainable investing – in part because asset managers like Vanguard, BlackRock, and Fidelity aren’t doing enough to help them shift.
Retirement plans should offer sustainable investment options that are fossil free, deforestation free, gun free, prison free, weapon free, tobacco free, and invest with a gender lens. Without sustainable investment options, plan participants are forced to assume financial risks associated with unsustainable investing. Do you want to be the “investor of last resort” in fossil fuels and other risky industries, after large investors have fled?
The financial risks of investing unsustainably, like stranded assets, reputational risk, and other negative impacts of unsustainable business practices can destroy shareholder value.
The goal of sustainable investing is to avoid financial risks while supporting the transition to a regenerative economy that is based on justice and sustainability.
Invest Your Values is a project of As You Sow, the nation’s non-profit leader in shareholder advocacy. Founded in 1992, we harness shareholder power to create lasting change that benefits people, planet, and profit.
We offer sustainable investment tools that highlight issues dealing with climate change, gender equality and more
Invest Your Values is funded by contributions to As You Sow, a non-profit 501(c)3.
Invest Your Values is a project by As You Sow, a 501(c)3 nonprofit empowering shareholders to change corporations for good
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