How to tell an ethical KiwiSaver from a greenwashed one

Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's how to check that your retirement fund is only funding companies you're ok with. Hosted by Frances Cook.<br /><br />To say that New Zealanders care about ethical investing is a bit of an understatement.<br /><br />Research from Mindful Money shows the vast majority of us want guilt-free investing, and it's more of us each year.<br /><br />In 2019, 83 per cent of us said we expected our KiwiSaver to be invested responsibly, which is up from 72 per cent of us in 2018.<br /><br />The ultimate test, of course, is whether people will put their money where their mouth is. <br /><br />Again, most of us say that we would – two thirds of New Zealanders say they would move their KiwiSaver if they disagreed with what it was being invested into.<br /><br />It's not just customers either.<br /><br />The world's biggest money manager, BlackRock, has started pulling out of fossil fuels across the board.<br /><br />And just this year, New Zealand's own Institute of Directors said responding to climate-related issues should be boards' top priority for 2020, to make sure their businesses can last long term.<br /><br />Now this is very nice, but it's a murky world out there when you're trying to be ethical.<br /><br />There's no set criteria for companies to report on ethical standards, so they're all reporting different things in different ways. This can make it a nightmare when you're trying to compare apples with apples for your investing options.<br /><br />Besides, everyone's idea of what is ethical is different. Weapons are produced by many engineering companies that also produce important technology that makes our lives better.<br /><br />Social media companies aren't usually on the ethical blacklist, but I personally think they behave in deeply troubling ways.<br /><br />So how can you find your way through this, to make sure that your money is supporting the things you want to see in the world?<br /><br />For