{"id":28601,"date":"2020-06-01T13:57:55","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T17:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/?p=28601"},"modified":"2020-07-06T11:44:47","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T15:44:47","slug":"as-you-sows-invest-your-values-wins-fcs-world-changing-ideas-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/as-you-sows-invest-your-values-wins-fcs-world-changing-ideas-award\/","title":{"rendered":"As You Sow’s Invest Your Values wins FC\u2019s World Changing Ideas Award"},"content":{"rendered":"
>> Back to June 2020 Issue<\/a><\/div>\n

This online tool helps you make sure your retirement investments reflect your values <\/em><\/h2>\n

The mutual fund\u2014essentially a basket of stocks\u2014is a common investment option in employees\u2019 retirement funds. What many workers don\u2019t realize, though, is that the basket they\u2019ve picked, usually from a limited set of options offered by a financial institution, is often filled to the brim with shares representing the most contentious industries in America: weapons manufacturers, big tobacco, and fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

But people increasingly want to know that the conglomeration of corporations that they part-own is clean. That\u2019s where As You Sow\u2019s \u201cInvest Your Values<\/strong>\u201d<\/a> online tool comes into play. The tool, the winner in the impact investing category of Fast Company\u2019s<\/strong> 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards<\/strong><\/a>, gives users a chance to view what\u2019s in the funds they\u2019re paying into and\u2014if they don\u2019t like what they find\u2014to pick a mutual fund more aligned with their politics. \u201cIts essence is to help everyday investors to align their investing with their values,\u201d<\/em> says Andrew Behar, As You Sow\u2019s CEO.<\/p>\n

Most people are unaware of where their retirement fund money is going. Personal investors are able to be more scrupulous\u20141 in 4 dollars invested in 2018 were in sustainable and responsible companies, according to a report by the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment\u2014but that\u2019s not true for people kept in the dark about the mutual funds that are part of their 401ks. Unknown to them, Behar says, they\u2019re owning shares in assault rifles, weapons of war, and \u201cthe Exxons and Chevrons of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The roughly 1 million users of the free tool simply input the name of a fund to find where their money is going. On that fund\u2019s page, they\u2019ll find a letter grade, A to F, according to its inclusion of \u201cvice stocks\u201d such as gun or tobacco manufacturers, companies that encourage deforestation, or businesses that have bad records on gender equality, for instance, questionable histories on maternity leave, sexual harassment, and gender balance in the workplace.<\/p>\n

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