How to find an ocean friendly fund, free from investments in companies harming our oceans.
Mindful Money has conducted research into how commercial investment impacts our oceans. Investment directly flows from many KiwiSaver and investment funds to the companies that cause harm to our oceans, ranging from carbon emissions that cause acidification and ocean warming to plastic pollution and waste dumping.
Annual surveys show that 89% of consumers want their investments to exclude environmental damage. But few people realise that their KiwiSaver and Managed Funds invest in companies that harm our oceans..
From Mindful Money’s analysis of fund investments at the end of March 2025, $3.5 billion of KiwiSaver money and $3.9 billion of retail investments was in companies causing ocean harm.
It doesn’t need to be this way. Investors can go to Mindful Money to compare funds and choose ocean-friendly companies that avoid harming the oceans we love.
Ocean friendly means that the funds are free from any of the following:
Plastic pollution - production and distribution of plastics..
Waste dumping and pollution - waste dumping and toxic chemicals, including the highly dangerous ‘forever chemicals (PFAS).
Physical destruction of marine habitats - harm to marine habitats such as reefs and the seabed through activities such as deep sea mining and bottom trawling.
Overfishing - significant overfishing of oceans through IUU fishing and targeting critically endangered species, as well as unsustainable aquaculture production.
Climate emissions - Producers of fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal) and methane from food and agriculture.
Read more about our methodology for identifying ocean harming companies here.
In future, Mindful Money will add a list of the investments in ocean regeneration, restoring past damage and supporting healthy oceans. There are currently very few such investments.
This initial list of funds includes the funds that have less than 0.01% holdings in the major companies responsible for ocean harm that are highlighted in Mindful Money’s Let Our Oceans Breathe Report. Additional companies will be added in future. This list of funds may have investments in other sectors and companies that cause less direct and significant harm. We welcome feedback to extend our analysis.
Note: The list includes only funds with ocean harming companies in their investing universe (e.g. not property companies) and only aggressive, growth or balanced funds that have at least 35% in equities. There are other ocean friendly funds beyond these requirements - use the Fund Checker to be sure.
KiwiSaver Funds free from Ocean harming companies (based on March 2025 data)
Investment Funds free from Ocean harming companies (based on March 2025 data)
