The 4 steps to sustainable investing

SmartPurse co-founder, Olga Miler, joined forces with sustainability expert Jessica Robinson, author of the book "Financial Feminism". Together they created our deep-dive course ‘How to invest in a sustainable future’ which you find in chapter 2 of this module. Here are the four steps that could help you to take a structured approach in your sustainable investing journey:  

This is the time when you look into the Sustainable Development Goals and ask yourself what your want your money to support. You also do your research into various options to invest and whether companies are greenwashing, or whether they’re actually dedicated towards making a difference with your investment.

If you’ve already set up a portfolio, whether you intended it to be sustainable or not, you can perform an audit of your investments - here are some places to begi:

• Databases such as MSCI, who are a leading provider of supportive investment tools - you can use these platforms to look up sustainability ‘ratings’ of companies and see how they have historically performed in meeting specific criteria
   
• Certification bodies such as the UN-supported ‘Principles for Responsible Investing’ - an everyday example of certification bodies is Fair Trade. If you make sure that the Fair Trade logo is on the coffee you buy, you can trust that there is a level of sustainability
   
• Index providers, such as Robeco, provide ‘benchmarks’ for your investments - this allows you to compare how different companies perform. Using this indexes takes the guess-work out of your audit, because it clearly shows you where your investments land in the bigger picture

You’ll begin to plan your investments and decide how rigid you want to be in your approach. This means you should know what your limits are and what you’re comfortable with. 

During this planning stage, you might consider the practicalities of your investments - do you want to manage your portfolio yourself? If the answer is yes, you’ll need to have the time to set everything up and to perform regular reviews of the process. If you don’t have much time to spare, you could always consider a robo-investor or financial advisor to begin with and when you haven’t got as much on your plate, you can revisit the process.

You’ll be using your knowledge from our investment module to help you make these steps and select platforms and providers based on traditional criteria, as well as the sustainability criteria you have defined for yourself.

Reviewing your investments is the best way to make sure that you have the impact you want and that you can continue to grow into the sustainable investor you want to be. As the world of sustainable investing is constantly in flow, learning never stops. We recommend you review and audit your investments at least once a year to see if they still are in sync with your values.