Earth Day 2022: 5 sites that take the legwork out of greening your money

Let’s be honest. We all want to be more green but unravelling, examining and rebuilding our money matters is time-consuming and complicated.

But it’s well worth persevering in the drive to do better, for our planet, for our health and, these days, for our wealth too. This week, data from retail consultancy and platform Supply Pilot reported that adopting sustainable practices now account for 20 per cent of a business’s financial results.

With half the average individual’s carbon footprint coming directly or indirectly from the financial products they engage with – from bank accounts and insurance, to pensions and investments – a deep dive into the actions of some of the UK’s biggest financial names could have a real impact.

Few of us have time for that though, so we’ve picked out the independent organisations that have done the legwork for you.

Good with money

An independent site, set up by two financial services insiders sickened by the amoral (at best) attitudes of those around them in the City, this service takes every aspect of our money matters and flags the brands with a “better than average” commitment to environmental, ethical and social criteria.

We like that Good with Money offers a comprehensive, open access directory of those businesses – which are listed for free – alongside a valuable library of information perfect for the eco beginner, explaining and dispelling the greenwashing fog around everything from green mortgages to the kids’ savings.

Make my money matter

The UK has £2.6 trillion invested in pensions. That’s £2.6 trillion of our personal money.

But for every £10 invested, £2 is linked to deforestation alone, without even delving into the massive relationship between pension funds and fossil fuels (or arms dealing, gambling and tobacco for that matter).

And with millions of Britons investing more than ever before thanks to the highly successful workplace pension scheme, that probably includes you.

Make My Money Matter is a campaign group putting pressure on the pensions industry to invest the vast sums under management as a force for good, not least, it points out, because there isn’t much point in retiring in an unliveable world.

We particularly like the way the group has easy-to-follow actions for everyone at every stage in the eco journey, ranging from finding out just how destructive (or not) our pension providers are to step-by-step guides to switching your financial allegiance.

Isitgreen

Our pensions are the biggest chunks of investable cash most of us will ever wield, so we make no apologies for focusing a bit more on them.

A great tool for calculating the carbon footprint of our personal pension portfolio comes from isitgreen.org, a collaboration between cross-party think tank Demos and Good With Money.

The site allows users to check how climate-friendly their pension savings are on a scale of one to five stars, with individual climate scores based on an assessment of how well both the fund and the asset manager we employ is combating climate change.

The score covers not only the industry companies in the portfolio are engaged in, but also year-on-year reductions in greenhouse gas emissions intensity, the transition to net zero and their impact on water security and deforestation.

Meanwhile, managers are scored against their climate change and environmental voting history at AGMs, the strength of the fund’s overarching environmental, social and governance (ESG) policy, and whether it is signed up for collective agreements on climate engagement and, crucially, disclosure.

Rainforest Action Network

Taking absolutely no prisoners when it comes to lifting the lid on just how much our familiar high street bank invests in fossil fuels, the not-for-profit Rainforest Action Network teams up every year with a whole range of international climate change campaigners and charities to produce the global list of shame, known as the Banking on Climate Chaos report.

The world’s biggest banking names hate it, rolling out the usual attempts to discredit the data every year instead of focusing on cleaning up their act.

We love it though, so here’s this year’s list. Where does your current account balance, savings account cash or children’s pocket money really end up? And what are you going to do about it?

Ethical consumer

Each day we all make a huge number of choices according to our personal ethics. Some are automatic, subconscious ones, others are carefully considered. Either way, we’re making decisions that fund a massive range of activities. Some beneficial, some anything but.

So how on earth do you take on such an avalanche of information to make informed and effective selections?

An eco consumer group, this all-rounder offers valuable insights into the impact we have as everyday savers and spenders across every aspect of consumption, as well as those all-important ratings lists.

Covering eco money matters alongside everything from energy to fashion, food and travel, the group’s environmental scoring system currently covers more than 40,000 of the brands and products we all rely on every day – though you will need to pay a subscription to access the full details.