Move Your Money

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You can make a difference with what banks, insurance, and investments you use. Take a stand against fossil fuels and for the public good. Plus in many cases you get better customer support, better investment returns, and more!

Banks: The Good and the Bad

Where you bank is important: Your money can make a 10X impact when it's in a bank (the bank uses it to finance other projects). That's 10X for or against the climate crisis. Check out Rainforest Action Network's analysis of the worst banks. When you're ready to move your money, consider these options:

Four Banks to Explore

Beneficial State Bank logo

Amalgamated Bank Logo

Aspiration bank logo

Atmos Bank Logo

Finding a Better Bank

Read this article on how to bank sustainably. Then try out one of these tools to search for a bank

Bank for Good

Coalition of value aligned banking organizations and better banking search tool

Bank Local

Search tool for finding local banks which provides ranking and characteristics for evaluating banks

Mighty Bank

Mighty is a comparison site to help you find banks and credit unions that are good for you and the issues you care about – like not funding fossil fuels.

Switching Banks

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a great guide for how to switch banks.

Switching? Let your OLD Bank know why! Send a note to your bank's CEO.

Insurance

Insurance companies lend money for fossil fuels, like coal. If Coal can’t get insurance it can’t continue to operate. Coal kills more than any other fuel today and it’s the worst for greenhouse gases too.

Insurers to Avoid

Most US insurers are not doing enough to get out of coal. The following have over $2 billion in coal, take in over $1 billion from California sources (2017 numbers) , and haven’t made a noticeable shift since 2017:

  • Liberty Mutual
  • Travelers
  • AIG
  • The Hartford

Driving Change

These companies have made varying commitments to change.

  1. Chubb Environmental policy – was first large US insurer to make a rated policy
  2. Axis Capital – Top rated out of the big insurers on action in the US – RAN Post
  3. Lemonade (B Corp) – Home and renters insurance
  4. Vantreo Insurance Brokerage (B Corp)

California Insurers Fossil Fuel disclosure (2017 data) provides data on many more insurers.

Switching? Let your OLD Insurance company know why! Find some templates here.

Investments

There are way too many bad investments to list. Index funds give you about a 10% investment in fossil fuels. Many so called “Ethical” or environmental funds do not have good policies – check what is actually being invested in!

Tools to Find Ethical Investments

These are some tools to help you find new funds or companies that are are fossil free – or committed to become so.

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Find Fossil Free Funds and see how much of your current funds include fossil fuels.

Science Based Targets

Find 850 companies that are engaging with the science target process and 350 that have set explicit science based targets for themselves.

Note: This means companies can currently have fossil fuels as part of their business. It also just rates them on Climate Science not any other impacts.

Natural Investments Logo

Maintains the Heart Rating which gives a full picture of the Environmental and Social impacts of funds.

Also an B Corp Investment advisor – but has a high minimum.

Closing thought: Research from Make My Money Matter, insurance firm Aviva and data analytics company Route2 finds that choosing a “green” pension could have an impact on an individual’s carbon footprint that is 21 times greater than the combined impact of giving up flying, going vegetarian and switching to renewable energy.