Our son Isaac serves a relatively small but growing United Church congregation in the idyllic Eastern Townships of Quebec. While they may not be big in numbers they have a sizeable investment portfolio because of the sale of buildings and property. The money is invested through one of Canada's big banks and the trustees feel they are acting responsibly.
Isaac has invited them to consider the United Church Foundation as an alternative. http://www.unitedchurchfoundation.ca/index.html You might not have heard of this foundation but it has a number of goals, including ethical investments:
The Foundation's own endowments are invested in a balanced fund managed by Fiera
Capital Inc. The fund the Foundation has chosen adheres to the socially
responsible investment requirements of the church.
Capital Inc. The fund the Foundation has chosen adheres to the socially
responsible investment requirements of the church.
The emphasis on "socially responsible" is mine. Presumably Christian institutions want their investments to pass the ethical "smell test" although in some cases folk may be willing to turn a blind eye when it comes to making their money work for them.
When Ike investigated their portfolio he discovered that it includes Lockheed Martin, one of the largest arms manufacturers in the world. They are building the controversial F-35 fighter jets which will cost Canadian taxpayers a bundle. In addition the investments include a tobacco company, a maker of video lottery terminals for gambling, an internet content producer which includes porn, and one of the Alberta oil sands giants. Yuck, yuck, and more yuck.
Isaac has yet to present this information to the trustees, so he doesn't know how they will respond. He figures they will be surprised. He doubts they know what he has discovered.
It's hard to know how to be ethical in a global economy. Should we buy personal goods from China with its lousy human rights record? Do we sell our cars and ride bicycles because all oil is dirty? Do we encourage members to examine their own portfolios?
I'm just impressed that my kid is trying to do the right thing. Shouldn't we all?
What are your thoughts about this? Should congregations be held to a higher standard? How about rank and file members?
7 comments:
Like the plastic bag ban we discussed a couple of weeks ago, ethical investing is a change in approach that probably requires some preparation of the ground in order for acceptance to come about. A speaker -- preferably from a church that has moved from regular to ethical investments to show that it can be done; a presentation. If there is a element of risk, that needs to be addressed. There has to be a sense of moral imperative in order for them to be willing to take a risk and change course.
I agree with all your observations Kathy. It is a kind of awakening that hasn't occurred to most of us in the past.
In October David Armour, director of the United Church Foundation, is coming to speak at St. Paul's. He is an effective communicator and I look forward to his time with us.
I'm glad to see you covered ethical investing.
Surveys all-over-the-world show that most investors want to invest in ethical companies and don't want their investments being the cause of grief to others. Then since so many of our core values are alike — and are supportive of higher ideals -- that in the long run, only companies employing these higher values will likely prosper.
I've been following ethical investing for some forty years.
In 2003, I founded a Canadian-based site to educate investors about ethical/socially responsible investing. According to Google rankings is one of the world's most popular sites on this subject
It covers the latest related global news, research, books, links, articles, etc. It's at http://investingforthesoul.com/
Best wishes, Ron
Thanks Ron.
Interesting the people who are following your blog David. Retirement? A professional blogger!
There are a lot of interesting people out there in the blogosphere!
Its great to see the subject of ethical investing getting more coverage. There are some unique projects available to individuals in the ethical investment space, not just in stocks but in alternatives such as carbon credit investments.
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