What if your investments aren’t as ethical as you thought?

<p><strong>Each week BusinessDesk and the NZ Herald’s Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it’s how to invest smartly, while accusations of greenwashing run rampant. Hosted by Frances Cook.</strong></p> <p>Something I get asked about a lot is ethical investing, and whether it’s possible to make money without making the world a worse place.</p> <p>My answer is a resounding yes. I truly believe that many of the best investments, with good profits, are ethical ones.</p> <p>It’s tricky though, because many companies would like to be seen to be doing good without putting in the work.</p> <p>A recent one that surprised me was Vanguard, a giant in the investing industry, getting into hot water with the Australian authorities.</p> <p>Australian regulators said Vanguard’s Ethically Conscious Global Aggregate Bond Index Fund was actually greenwashing, because of investments associated with the fossil fuel industry.</p> <p>Meanwhile, local fund manager Pathfinder recently ditched all of its investments in BlackRock, after the global asset manager appointed Saudi Aramco’s chief executive to its board.</p> <p>Pathfinder CEO John Berry said “this undermines everything BlackRock has said and done over the past five years about it leading the transition to a lower carbon world”.</p> <p>It can be a minefield, and no investor wants to feel tricked.</p> <p>So here’s how to figure it out so you get the best bang for your buck, while sleeping well at night.</p> <p>For the latest podcast, I talked to John Berry from Pathfinder.</p> <p>I'm on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookNZ/">Facebook here</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz/">Instagram her</a>e, and <a href="https://twitter.com/FrancesCook">Twitter here</a>.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>