STRIKE THE RIGHT BALANCE

Can growing your portfolio make a difference in mitigating the climate crisis? As the weather breaks records year after year, climate-conscious investors have taken action by divesting from highly polluting industries. Financial institutions, such as banks and investment funds, and informed individuals have invested more into supposedly “green” companies, hoping to reduce the damaging climate impact of their money. Investors—whether institutions or individuals—have some influence over the pace and manner of this transition towards more sustainable business methods; but how can they tell whether a company is actually changing or just paying lip service? One way is to look at sustainability, or climate, reports; similar to annual financial reports, governments and regulators—including stock exchanges—around the world have encouraged and in many cases made it mandatory for companies to disclose their…