Ethical Investors Have Been Missing Something When It Comes To Animals, But Now It’s Here

Source Forbes
By Katrina Fox

I’m the founder of Vegan Business Media, a content, events and training platform providing resources to vegan business owners and entrepreneurs. I’ve been a journalist for 17 years, writing for niche and mainstream media in the UK, US and Australia. I host the Vegan Business Talk podcast and am the author of Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business, the first book of its kind, which provides success strategies for aspiring and existing vegan business owners. I help vegan business owners and plant-based entrepreneurs across the globe to raise their profile through PR consulting and media training, including my online course and group coaching program Vegans in the Limelight. Originally from London, UK, I now live in Sydney, Australia, and am a regular speaker and MC at local and international vegfests and other events. Send me tips on vegan and plant-based businesses to katrina@veganbusinessmedia.com

Investors are starting to become more discerning about where they put their money. Richard Branson and Bill Gates are among the growing number of high-profile names investing in businesses that seek to do social good.

Many brands label themselves ‘ethical’ because of their commitment to initiatives that include supporting human rights, fair labor conditions and sustainability, but there’s a gap in the environmental, social and government criteria (ESG) that’s used to identify socially responsible companies. At the moment these criteria don’t include animal cruelty, exploitation or abuse.

Cruelty Free Investing, a 501C3 non-profit organization launched today, aims to fill that gap by providing resources for individual and institutional investors and financial advisors to help them make decisions in line with their values.

While many investors prefer to buy shares in mutual funds instead of picking individual stock options, there are currently no mutual funds with a focus on the rights of animals. Cruelty Free Investing, which was founded by former journalist Dave Brett Wasser, hopes that its research will encourage the creation of such funds, which will then be added in a new section on the website.

As animal cruelty and exploitation continues to be exposed in the media, as well as on social media, we are seeing a new generation of investors and finance industry professionals seeking truly ethical options. These include the ‘vegan mafia’, a network of investors from companies including PowerPlant Ventures, VegInvest and Stray Dog Capital; the Glass Wall Syndicate of plant-based investors; and Baleine & Bjorn Capital, headed up by Smarties co-president Liz Dee, as well as financial planning firms such as Humane Investing. The tide is turning. Make sure you’re on the right list.

Katrina Fox is the founder of VeganBusinessMedia.com, author of Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business and host of the Vegan Business Talk podcast.

to invest in ways
that save this
earth where
we dwell
is the sweetest
and most soft
of sells

Karen Lyons Kalmenson