If you've got $125k in the financial system, it's doing as much damage as your cooking and your heating and your flying. These are the most important new climate numbers for many years
Thank you Bill for writing this article. I just want to take issue with promoting Aspiration as an alternative. I used to bank with Aspiration, but became disillusioned -- there is an in-depth Propublica article about them I hope folks will read when considering where to move their money: https://www.propublica.org/article/the-celebrity-backed-green-fintech-company-that-isnt-as-green-as-it-seems. I ended up moving my money over to Atmos Financial (while keeping my credit union accounts as well -- it's totally OK to have an open relationship with your bank!). Atmos has amazing rates (unlike my credit union) and (unlike my credit union, or basically any other banking provider) invests 100% of my deposits into climate solutions. (Full disclosure: after banking with Atmos, I ended up working there, running their nonprofit donation platform.) Atmos customers are rewarded for donating to a long list of climate-focused nonprofits -- we need to get Third Act onto that list!
I'm a Certified Financial Planner who helps clients decarbonize their investments - using AsYouSow.org's super useful search engine: FossilFreeFunds.org. You can enter the name or symbol of any stock fund and find out what the exposure is, if any, to the fossil fuel industry. And I have my clients do their banking through Beneficial State bank, as Bill mentions. I would be very cautious of banks or websites that claim to offer access to fossil free investments - in most cases, either there's not enough selection to be truly diversified, or the funds they recommend are not really fossil fuel free.
What about the credit card? We pay it off every month, but there's always a balance. Does that have the same effect as if the average balance were in a savings account?
A lot of our retirement $ is with the Cooperative Fund of New England. They invest in local co-ops - food, housing, energy, etc. There are probably a lot of other cooperative funds out there, too. The only one I can find at the moment is nextcity.org, which makes loans to worker co-ops.
Amalgamated does not seem to have branches outside the NYC metro area, so I’m not sure it is an option for most East Coast residents. Also, I noticed that Amalgamated trumpets its membership in the Net Zero Banking Alliance, but so is BofA and JPM Chase.
Are there ‘climate friendly’ credit cards? Also, are there independent institutions to audit the banks that are supposed to hold climate friendly investments? I imagine that would get undermined fairly quickly without regulation or oversight. At least a consumer watchdog group bc at this point I don’t really see clean regulatory bodies as a possibility
I also think we should not turn off backs on carbon capture technology and utilization. It's a technology that is already up and running pulling carbon out of the atmosphere. Yes, they are working with the fossil fuel industry, also looking to work with the cement Industry which produces a lot of carbon dioxide also. It's not an ideal solution, nothing is, but at this late stage in the game we need to use every tool in the toolbox that works. If carbon capture can scale up large enough globally it can make a real dent in the carbon in the atmosphere.
Thanks for this. I have a tiny amount of money in Chase - and one reason is exactly what you are writing about. Most of my funds are in retirement accounts with Fidelity. Any idea what their carbon footprint is like? And most of my stock investments are in ESG companies like ENPH and ORGN and many others. How does that work?
Thank you Bill for writing this article. I just want to take issue with promoting Aspiration as an alternative. I used to bank with Aspiration, but became disillusioned -- there is an in-depth Propublica article about them I hope folks will read when considering where to move their money: https://www.propublica.org/article/the-celebrity-backed-green-fintech-company-that-isnt-as-green-as-it-seems. I ended up moving my money over to Atmos Financial (while keeping my credit union accounts as well -- it's totally OK to have an open relationship with your bank!). Atmos has amazing rates (unlike my credit union) and (unlike my credit union, or basically any other banking provider) invests 100% of my deposits into climate solutions. (Full disclosure: after banking with Atmos, I ended up working there, running their nonprofit donation platform.) Atmos customers are rewarded for donating to a long list of climate-focused nonprofits -- we need to get Third Act onto that list!
You should also mention Climate First Bank as a "good" alternative!
I'm a Certified Financial Planner who helps clients decarbonize their investments - using AsYouSow.org's super useful search engine: FossilFreeFunds.org. You can enter the name or symbol of any stock fund and find out what the exposure is, if any, to the fossil fuel industry. And I have my clients do their banking through Beneficial State bank, as Bill mentions. I would be very cautious of banks or websites that claim to offer access to fossil free investments - in most cases, either there's not enough selection to be truly diversified, or the funds they recommend are not really fossil fuel free.
What about the credit card? We pay it off every month, but there's always a balance. Does that have the same effect as if the average balance were in a savings account?
What about credit unions and local banks? Keeping money local is critical to support local economies and reduce dependency on big business.
Petro Dollars, not sovereign metals, they ended in 1972. We have to ‘burn’ to earn.
A lot of our retirement $ is with the Cooperative Fund of New England. They invest in local co-ops - food, housing, energy, etc. There are probably a lot of other cooperative funds out there, too. The only one I can find at the moment is nextcity.org, which makes loans to worker co-ops.
I chose to switch to Atmos to get my money out of fossil fuels! (Also no greenwashing there👀)
I have my cash in a credit union account. Is there any climate-related advantage to moving it?
Amalgamated does not seem to have branches outside the NYC metro area, so I’m not sure it is an option for most East Coast residents. Also, I noticed that Amalgamated trumpets its membership in the Net Zero Banking Alliance, but so is BofA and JPM Chase.
https://www.cleanenergycu.org/home/loans/solar-electric-systems I found Clean Energy Credit Union. It’s been great to put a saving account there.
Are there ‘climate friendly’ credit cards? Also, are there independent institutions to audit the banks that are supposed to hold climate friendly investments? I imagine that would get undermined fairly quickly without regulation or oversight. At least a consumer watchdog group bc at this point I don’t really see clean regulatory bodies as a possibility
Are there ‘climate friendly’ credit cards ?
I also think we should not turn off backs on carbon capture technology and utilization. It's a technology that is already up and running pulling carbon out of the atmosphere. Yes, they are working with the fossil fuel industry, also looking to work with the cement Industry which produces a lot of carbon dioxide also. It's not an ideal solution, nothing is, but at this late stage in the game we need to use every tool in the toolbox that works. If carbon capture can scale up large enough globally it can make a real dent in the carbon in the atmosphere.
Thanks for this. I have a tiny amount of money in Chase - and one reason is exactly what you are writing about. Most of my funds are in retirement accounts with Fidelity. Any idea what their carbon footprint is like? And most of my stock investments are in ESG companies like ENPH and ORGN and many others. How does that work?