Great way to make people aware that they can make a difference with their investment and support sustainable businesses! I think in 2020 it’s a must for a platform like Freetrade to help climate-conscious investing gain traction!!
I second this motion =)
Its a good shout, I could see this drawing people who might not normally invest to the platform. Its a balance to listing tobacco, oil, gambling stock et.
I would love it if they used standard ICBs rather than making up their own. Would make it much easier to figure out exposure to different sectors
FreeTrade, how are you tackling sustainability investing?
I type the word ‘sustai…’ into the app and immediately nothing comes up
Personally I’d be happier to exclude dirty and unethical companies rather than having a lot of sustainable companies. E.g. I don’t want to buy a fund that has oil investments, or a very unethical supply chain.
Agreed. I am somewhat concerned this is not a bigger focus for FreeTrade. I can not buy an etf which it’s main holdings are tobacco, oil and gambling etc…
We also do not want a sustainable etf which charges 2-3% in charges. I hope there is a way this can change?
Hi Mods, maybe this idea and Add a Green/ESG sector? could be merged as both have some votes?
One difficulty with excluding the bad companies (or including only good companies) is that the category “ESG” or “ethical” bundles up many different things - you’d probably find, for instance, that oil cos have good corporate governance and good worker conditions. So “ethical” is a hard category to solve.
That said, “sustainable” is easier: you could imagine putting INRG, TRIG, UKW, ITM and a few others into a sustainable or low carbon sector on Freetrade, and I think it would be a great idea.
I don’t love the idea of excluding stocks based on subjective things. The assumption that everyone has the same values is a dangerous one and will likely cause issues. Who decides if a stock is “ok” or not? it should be the buyer, not the broker, not an online forum.
That said, I would like to see more ETFs of all kinds.
I think the climate emergency authorizes selection of such kind. we have to decide what is ok and what is not. And it doesn’t need to be based on opinions, it can be based on science.
not sure if you guys heard of Clim8, they were raising on Crowdcube in the past month.
Maybe Freetrade could do a partnership with them as they offer something Freetrade never wants to offer (actively managed funds) but it is GREEN INVESTMENTS ONLY which I find beyond-amazing!
check them out https://clim8invest.com/
Freetrade already offers actively managed funds. Do you mean closed funds? If yes, I don’t see any mention about that on their page.
What do they invest in? I couldn’t find a single company that they mention.
ESG is a very soft term. I love the direction, but it’s usually a lot of rubbish. My pension ESG fund’s largest holding is Nestle
I am for the idea btw. It just needs a very detailled and coherent definition of what’s sustainable in order to be believable.
The comment I was responding to was not specifically about climate change, but who is we in your example?
You don’t, I do. If the info shown, everyone can freely choose.
I would 100% agree with that, absolutely.
Showing info is not the same as excluding something though
the emphasis is more on the have to and not the we. I mean as a society.
Yes, ethical is complicated to define. But I’m sure there are already ratings out there, maybe Freetrade could start a partnership with one company that makes these ratings.
@SebReitz totally agree. A company could invest in renewable energy, and have its financial centre in the Cayman. I wouldn’t want to invest in that company.
I got the emphasis, I was more interested in the we. We decide every single day, but buying or not buying something. What is being suggested is a small group of people decide for everyone else. It’s not the same thing. For the record, I don’t disagree with the need to address climate problems, after all, one of my largest holdings is clean energy, but that was my choice.
Sorry maybe I/we hijacked a bit the conversation, might be worth opening a new topic if there is not already