How to invest in the environment

Make your retirement savings work for you — and the planet.

Photo by oldskool photography on Unsplash

Our planet is worth saving — but it can be difficult to figure out how we, as individuals, can make a difference.

There’s already a lot of good resources for taking political action and making lifestyle changes like biking instead of driving and eating less meat — but there’s a third weapon in our arsenal: eco-forward investing. Investing money you already have in companies that care about the environment.

(Want to get straight to the strategy? See the 60 second guide at the bottom)

Why Eco-Friendly Investing?

This approach is beautiful for so many reasons:

1. It only takes a few minutes to set up, but pays eco-dividends for the rest of your life.
2. Anyone with savings can help, at no additional cost.
3. It uses free market capitalism as a force for good rather than evil.
4. Companies that care about the environment will outperform those destroying it (see: coal is on the decline, renewable jobs are skyrocketing)

Excited yet?

Eco-Smart Index Funds

First, a quick personal finance lesson: Index funds are stocks that represent a…