How Socially Responsible Investing Impacts the Environment

Socially Responsible Investing doesn’t start- or end- with the environment necessarily, and it’s not always synonymous with “green investments”. However, it has the potential to make a huge impact on the environment in which we all live. Here’s a look at a few ways SRI impacts the environment:

Cleaner Energy

Pollution continues to be a serious problem as more and more people inhabit our planet. The goal of clean energy is to help to reduce global warming and greenhouse gas emissions and thereby make the planet safer for all of us. By choosing to invest in socially responsible companies that make electric cars, solar panels, and wind power energy, we can encourage cleaner energy.

A new study shows that the green energy sector will receive almost $5.1 trillion worth of investment for new power plants by 2030.

Reduced Waste

People consume food. No way around that one. But in many cases in America, our food comes with packaging. This packaging ends up in oceans and landfills and sits there for, in some cases, hundreds of years. Hundreds!

Many companies are cognizant of their waste and are working to improve it. A multinational shoe company is recycling running shoes and shredding them so the shredded shoes become raw materials for alternative energy!

Fuller Forests

Approximately one BILLION trees worth of paper are thrown in a trash bin every year in the United States. In 2017, this issue can be solved relatively easily with the extensive use of digital documents. It’s a prevalent feature offered by most financial institutions and takes just a minute to sign up. For any institution that may not embrace electronic documents, Socially Responsible Investors have the chance to push such positive changes.

Improved Air Quality

Every year, tobacco use kills more people in America than alcohol abuse, murders, car wrecks, suicides, and HIV combined. That in and of itself is incredibly sad. But on top of that addition, cigarette smoke emits nearly eight billion kilograms of greenhouse gases annually. Through socially responsible investing, we can encourage corporations to not only prohibit smoking on company property, but also encourage them to provide incentives for employees to quit this harmful habit.

Socially Responsible Investing is a practice that any investor can get on board with to make a positive impact on the world around them. As an investor, you hold a share of power to promote the continued life and well being of our planet.