In the great world of investing, it can be tumultuous at best when trying to find the right stocks that align with your passions while also providing adequate returns when armed with limited knowledge. However, the task of locating eco-friendly stocks are not as hard you might think.
Thanks to the world of robo-investing, apps like Stash and Grow allow you to invest specifically in environmentally friendly funds with minimal costs. However, if you’d like to dig a little deeper on why a company is eco-friendly, the list below provides some good qualifications on who’s a good prospect versus who isn’t.
- Is the company being considered green certified – LEED Certified – or have they started the process of getting certified?
- Is the company environmentally knowledgeable, and do they use that knowledge in planning their company’s physical site?
- Are they efficient in their overall energy use?
- Do they produce goods sustainably, while reducing waste creation by using materials available locally?
- Do they consciously avoid damaging the environment, and are conscious of the possible pollutants expelled with the use of non-environmentally friendly machinery and vehicles, and serve to limit this?
- Are they aware of and working towards employing and maintaining fair employment practices?
With that said should you stumble upon a company that answers yes to most of these questions, then you can most definitely be assured they’re good prospects for the environmentally conscious investors. Just to be clear though, this list is not exhaustive as you can go ahead and add other criteria as you see fit.
One thing that’s done fairly quickly and requires you to have no prior training or knowledge is to search for your prospective company’s news feeds. Chances are if they’re aboard the environmental campaign, they’ll want to make this public knowledge and through your research you’ll see exactly what they’ve implemented, and plan to implement in the future.
Just keep in mind the best eco-friendly stocks to consider are those typically from companies that manufacture electronic and hybrid vehicles, wind and solar technology as well as produce organic products.
In addition to your own research, it might be helpful to seek professional help when it comes to deciding which companies to invest in. The robo-advisor Betterment has introduced Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) Portfolios that allow you to invest in funds that match your interests. They also allow you to chat with financial advisors via their app for extra guidance.
We all know Financial Advisors are paid well to help clients select appropriate stocks that will produce acceptable returns. However, Betterment provides their streamlined investing process with this extra guidance at no extra cost.
With their help and analysis, you’re more likely to be investing in funds that will align with your specific financial goals. This is a great way to feel good about where your money is invested.
Are politicians consciously destroying the planet?
Everyone speaks about responsible recycling, but no one speaks against the continued manufacture of unrecyclable plastics, Styrofoam, Mylar, glyphosate, and many other deleterious products. Animal rights groups protest deer hunts which occur 2 weeks a year, but they never protest construction (or destruction) of farm land or natural wildlife habitats which occur year-round. More wildlife is lost due to unfettered overdevelopment than from a couple weeks of hunting.
Mainstream media in league with politicians talk about global warming and the continued use of fossil fuels, yet no one speaks against the loss of our natural resources and habitats which is just as serious. Concrete and asphalt absorb heat fueling global warming, which is why cities have historically been hotter than rural areas. A discussion on global warming without including this fact is not a serious discussion. We are experiencing more and more tornadoes, wildfires, floods, and hurricanes which are a direct result of global warming greatly fueled by the heat absorbed from asphalt and concrete. https://overdevelopment.weebly.com/change.html
Local politicians in the U.S. overtax long-time landowners, forcing them to either subdivide and/or sell their land or move. Politicians then rezone residential to commercial land regardless of the outrage that emanates from local communities. Often, single hoe residences are converted to small businesses.
Politicians give developers the right to buy former farms or wildlife habitats and squeeze as many row homes and shopping centers as they can in small areas. Apparently, politicians want shopping centers in every backyard of America.
During political campaigns, politicians promise to protect open space. But what voters do not realize is that those politicians consider open space as shopping centers and developed parks, which include asphalt and/or concrete.
Townships across the U.S. hold annual Community Day events (during election years they occur just prior to election day) which are sponsored by developers, land development associations, and realtors. During these events, politicians promise a better America to unwitting voters who are unaware that these politicians have already committed their support to developers who will inevitably infringe on their neighborhoods.
It used to be joyful to drive through the countrysides of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, and regions beyond. Gone are the landscapes and natural wildlife habitats replaced with sign after sign, row homes and seas of shopping centers. Creeks are now surrounded by shopping centers, industrial parks, and/or squeezed by townhouses which only pollute the streams with plastic, Styrofoam, glyphosate, and much mo
When states are given federal funds to improve infrastructure, they use it to further destroy the natural world, again, with more shopping centers and row homes. This intensifies traffic and negates improvements to the infrastructure and increases the need for additional roads. Thus, more open spaces are senselessly lost.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlbAZvcVM9E
https://overdevelopment.weebly.com/environment.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2015/09/25/the-science-of-why-cities-are-warmer-than-rural-areas/#49676e671744
Do you think so-called environmental groups will help? You are wrong!
Greenpeace won’t get involved. They go after ‘shocking’ stunts, such as climbing the Eiffel Tower to put up a banner reading “Resist”. NRDC, Friends of the Earth, and the Sierra Club (just to name a few) are equally as worthless. When contacted for assistance in protecting natural wildlife habitats, these so-called environmental groups will refer callers to other environmental groups who will continue the referral process. Each so-called environmental group will recommend that callers should contact their local townships or create petitions. Speaking with local township officials and creating petitions simply does not help, because local township officials have already pledged their allegiance to developers.
The EPA, who works closely with the NRDC, is controlled by the very politicians who reside in the pockets of developers. When contacted to help save the Eastern Box Turtle from imminent extinction due to development, rather than protect the turtles and/or their natural habitats, the NRDC has instructed callers to take pictures of them and post the pictures online. This does not help the Eastern Box Turtle.
http://www.wildlifewatchers.org/esReports/report30.html
The Nature Conservancy has accepted donations for decades under the guise of protecting the rainforest, yet the rainforest shrinks more and more each year. If asked to help prevent overdevelopment, they simply refuse to get involved.
https://americanpolicy.org/1999/05/29/land-grabbing-secrets-of-the-conservancy/
If you investigate any environmental group you will find that there are large corporations, developers and realtors on their boards.
Citizens (mothers, fathers, and anyone concerned with the health of the planet), need a politician who will protect the environment without lip service nor greenwash. Democrats give the impression that they want to slow global warming, but they continue to allow the very things that exacerbate it. During political campaigns democrats will promise to protect open spaces, but their definition of open spaces includes asphalt and concrete.
Obama did not intervene in DAPL and allowed the Water Protectors to be cruelly and illegally abused by an American corporation, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP). The Dakota river was not protected by the Obama administration, the U.S. Corp of Engineers, nor the EPA, and ETP succeeded in placing a pipeline under the river! Furthermore, ETP (Chevron, Exxon Mobile, and corporations like them) claim they are environmentally responsible through TV, podcasts, and printed advertisements, but this is simply greenwash once you investigate their work history.
https://www.kfyrtv.com/content/news/US-Army-Corps-of-Engineers-grants-easement-for-DAPL-under-Lake-Oahe-413224723.html
https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dakota-access-pipeline
https://www.ecowatch.com/dakota-access-pipeline-missouri-river-2086372132.html
Not one word was mentioned regarding the environment and global warming at the Democratic debates. One would expect more from Democrats, as the Republicans do not hide the fact that they care not for the health of the planet, proving that the Democrats are no better than Republicans.
When Senators Warren and Sanders were recently contacted regarding global warming and over development, only Mr. Sanders replied with a post card, stating the he could not intervene in a state outside Vermont. This is a man who is running for President of the United States!
In 2019, New Jersey and Pennsylvania reported 40 tornadoes!
https://www.inquirer.com/news/tornadoes-philadelphia-severe-storms-pennsylvania-new-jersey-20190812.html
Each summer the earth grows hotter and hotter. The Midwest and western half of the nation has also borne witness to more and more wildfires and floods; a direct result of global warming. Developers, with the support of politicians, continue to pave and build on natural wildlife habitats.
Furthermore, who will be financially responsible when homes are damaged by floods, tornadoes, wildfires, or hurricanes exacerbated by the politically endorsed global warming? Will the developers or politicians be responsible? Of course not. It will be the homeowners. Just as consumers are now responsible for paying to have old electronics recycled, citizens will be responsible for what ravenously greedy developers and politicians are allowing to happen to the planet. However, to be fair, WE ARE ALL responsible because WE, as a nation, did nothing to prevent the environmental exploitation.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/explainer/article/The-trouble-with-living-in-a-swamp-Houston-7954514.php
https://wtkr.com/2019/04/22/environmental-group-blaming-new-development-for-flooding-increase-in-sandbridge-city-blames-winds-and-climate-change/
Over development, thus global warming, is a worldwide problem and not isolated to the United States alone. As underdeveloped nations grow, global warming will increase. However, there is no reason to have miles and miles of row homes or seas of shopping centers merely for profit. This is something that forward thinking and caring American citizens can prevent. Furthermore, in an era when more and more consumers are buying online, there is no reason for brick and mortar stores.
Before he died, Stephen Hawking warned that we must find a habitable planet within 100 years …
http://time.com/4767595/stephen-hawking-100-years-new-planet/
Is this what our leaders want for their children and their offspring. Is this what Christians mean by ‘those left behind’ or ‘the meek shall inherit the earth’? Woe to those left behind or the meek.
Anyone with children or grandchildren should take the health of the planet very seriously. This is their future. Otherwise, why did you have children?
To look at the cross-section of any plan of a big city is to look at something like the section of a fibrous tumor. –Frank Lloyd Wright
The world is becoming one huge tumor.
I hope this writing has encouraged you to take action for future generations.
-C. Rose
9/25/2019