EIRIS Foundation data used to help consumers choose ‘green, clean and kind’ money…..
The EIRIS Foundation are pleased to have helped the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF) identify how retail finance providers are addressing issues around ‘building back better’ post-COVID.
UKSIF, as part of their annual Good Money Week week campaign, requested data that would help inform consumers about which retail financial products and providers were best supporting and facilitating a ‘Green and Fair’ recovery post-COVID. UKSIF indicated that they would like to use the data we compiled to identify leadership and initiative within this broad theme. Some of the specific topics/issues of interest were: Supporting the low-carbon transition; alternatives investing; treatment of employees (in light of the pandemic); diversity and equal opportunities; Funds/lending that supports Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs); and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Summarised Process: We narrowed down the scope of retail financial products and providers to: pension funds, retail investment funds and their managers, and retail banks. In focussing on the concept of how these entities have responded to current issues around diversity and calls for ‘Building Back Better’ post-Covid as well as continuing to address climate change challenges, we concentrated on gathering data on the following broad topics:
- COVID-specific responses
- Black Lives Matter and Equality/Diversity acknowledgement and actions/commitments
- Acting on Climate and the Sustainable Development Goals
- Investing in a Better Future (Including SMEs and Low-Carbon/SDG focussed loans & investment)
- Repurposing Finance / Responsible Business
We did this through researching publicly available data as well as through questionnaires and requests for clarification directly from the organisations.
Further information about the project and methodology.
Download ‘Clean Slate, Green Slate – A Beginner’s Guide to Green, Clean, and Kind Money’