Invest Your Money in Sustainable Businesses

Something that can get overlooked when trying to adopt a sustainable lifestyle is how you invest your money. If you have any savings, a 401K, a retirement fund, mutual funds, CDs, or stocks, then you have money invested in other businesses. If you are going to invest, put your money into businesses that support a sustainable world. Doing so supports these companies and helps them succeed. Unfortunately, many profitable companies earn their profits by extracting the earth’s resources, damaging the environment, or utilizing inhumane labor. Where we invest our money drives the direction of our world. We should not invest our money into mining fossil fuels or cheap meat production, and instead, we should invest in solar energy, electric public transportation, regenerative farming, etc.

Invest in companies that create value to society; for example, a company that produces clothing or food. Other types of companies earn money on interest, like bank loans, or rent on land, like apartment buildings. These types of companies don’t actually add value to society. You’ll want to invest in companies that have a triple bottom line: profit, environment, and social. These companies seek to not harm the environment and provide socially just work places in addition to making a profit. Certified B Corps have these values.
Find opportunities to do impact investing. This is investing your money into a company that is beneficial for the environment or has a social impact while also making a profit. A safe Impact Investment is to put money into RSS Social Finance, which provides a guaranteed 1-1.2% return. They invest the money into organizations that make a good impact. CNote is another place to invest into good companies with slightly higher returns. You can also put your money into a local non-profit credit union, into a CD with a guaranteed return. The local non-profit credit union will keep the money in the local economy, which is better than your money going to big national banks and into dirty industries. Also, look for any other investment opportunities for organizations that are mission driven, with a purpose to help the world live in a more sustainable way.