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Ethical Investment Guide - Your Values, Your Investment
5th Oct. 2023
Navigating the ins and outs of our KiwiSaver often involves thinking about returns, fees, and risks. But there’s another big piece of the puzzle: making sure your money backs companies that you believe in. Investing ethically means pausing and asking: Does my money mirror my values?
Your Values, Your Investment. Check your provider’s ethical matches your ethical.
This week, New Zealand joins the world in celebrating World Investor Week, with the spotlight on ethical investing. This international campaign seeks to amplify the significance of investor education and protection, while simultaneously increasing the country’s investor education and protection initiatives within the realm of securities regulation. Spearheading this effort, the New Zealand Financial Markets Authority has launched a campaign titled "Your Values, Your Investment” aiming to empower investors to confidently make investing decisions that are aligned with their values.
Navigating the ins and outs of our KiwiSaver often involves thinking about returns, fees, and risks. But there’s another big piece of the puzzle: making sure your money backs companies that you believe in. Investing ethically means pausing and asking: Does my money mirror my values?
A good place for New Zealanders to start when thinking about ethical investing is being clear on how to reflect personal values in your investments. Everyone's beliefs of what is important are different, which is why it's important to ask: What do you want to support? What would make you feel uncomfortable or compromised to profit from? What are your non-negotiables?
Annual surveys tell us that New Zealanders care deeply about issues like human rights, fair work conditions, weapons production, protecting our planet, respecting indigenous peoples' rights, ensuring companies pay fair taxes, and avoiding animal testing for non-medical reasons, among others.
However, these values are not always explicitly mirrored in numerous KiwiSaver funds' holdings. As of March 2023, our collective KiwiSaver funds are supporting the following types of companies that most New Zealanders want to avoid:
- Fossil Fuels: $3.2 billion is invested in the fossil fuel sector. While some oil and gas companies are genuine about their transition plans towards renewable energy, most KiwiSaver investment goes into companies that are investing in more oil and gas production.
- Animal Cruelty: $2 billion is invested in companies associated with animal cruelty, including products tested on animals, factory farming, and fur.
- Human Rights Abuses: $1.4 billion is invested in companies linked to human rights violations, such as mining companies harming communities and sweatshop factories harming workers.
- Social Harm: KiwiSaver funds have over $1 billion invested in sectors such as alcohol, pornography, gambling, and tobacco.
- Weapons: About $292 million is associated with weapons manufacturers, including firms that produce nuclear armaments.
The good news is there’s a very simple solution - in New Zealand, we enjoy a level of transparency in KiwiSaver and Investment funds, a feature that is not common in many other countries. Fund providers are obliged to disclose their holdings twice a year. Utilizing this available data, Mindful Money, a charity, extends the research to reveal the indirect investments via funds, and correlates it with the issues that New Zealanders say they want to avoid in their investments. The information is clear, accessible and free, so every New Zealander can see what their money is supporting.
Join thousands of other New Zealanders who have checked their KiwiSaver funds and found a new fund that fits their values.
It’s user-friendly; all you need is your current fund’s name.
We are an independent charity that has created a Mindful Ethical Fund Finder tool, which can help you find the funds that meet your needs.
You will have to answer three questions:
- What do you want to avoid investing in?
- What investment approach is important to you?
- What is your risk profile?
Switching your KiwiSaver or other investment funds can be a straightforward process that takes less than 15 minutes! It is free to switch your fund.
Your KiwiSaver is more than a retirement nest egg. It's an instrument of change, capable of influencing our collective tomorrow.
About World Investor Week
World Investor Week is a worldwide effort to boost awareness about the importance of learning about investing and protecting investors, spotlighting different global initiatives and a theme that makes investors stop and think.
About the Financial Markets Authority
Want to learn more? Head to Financial Markets Authority - New Zealand for more ethical investing content.