Ethical Investment

The Society of Friends decided 5 years ago to divest any investments in fossil fuels, and Friends are engaging with New Zealand banks about their investment criteria with a view to positively changing their investment policies and practices. Quakers continue to discuss the ethical investment of their funds, and to encourage individual Friends to consider their own investment decisions and the purposes for which their funds might be being used.

 

Quaker Robert Howell did much to educate the community about ethical investment, and how to evaluate claims made by fund managers. In a series of articles Robert reviewed claims by fund managers Simplicity and Pathfinders that they were ethical investors. You can read more about what it is and how to know you are investing ethically in his analysis of Pathfinders here:

https://wiseresponse.org.nz/2021/05/21/pathfinder-ethical-funds-are-they-ethical-lessons-to-be-learned-by-dr-robert-howell/

 

The Quaker Lecture in 2017 "Transcending Neoliberalism" was given by Jane Kelsey. Jane Kelsey is one of New Zealand's best-known critical commentators on issues of globalisation and neoliberalism. She has taught at the University of Auckland since 1979, specialising in socio-legal studies, law and policy, and international economic regulation. In her 2017 Quaker lecture Jane addresses the issue of Neolibralism both globally and in New Zealand, and offers thoughts and suggestions on how this country can “move from a state of denial, to progressive transformation”. You can view a video recording of the 2017 Lecture here.

 

"Our bank accounts, pension funds and investments make us all a part of the global financial system. Whether we have a little or a lot, what we do with our money matters. We can use our money as an important tool for positive social change, campaigning for fairer wages for workers or for a transition to a clean, renewable energy system." Quakers in Britain (quaker.org.uk) 

One Quaker's concern for ethical investment

Quaker Robert Howell has had a longstanding commitment to ethical investment. In the late 1990s Robert initiated and headed up a working party for the CCANZ (New Zealand’s equivalent of the National Council of Churches) on Church investments that later morphed into the Council for Socially Responsible Investment (CSRI) in 2004. This was a charitable trust and not limited to religious investors. It has since closed.

The interest in ethical investment led to an involvement with the Quaker Institute for the Future (QIF), a Quaker North American based think tank, and Sustainable Aotearoa New Zealand (SANZ), a charitable trust aiming to promote sustainability in New Zealand.  Robert was one of the Quaker authors of Right Relationship, Building a Whole Earth Economy, and his book Investing in People and the Planet was published in 2017.

ethical investing