Banking and green are not two relatable terms, are they? Therefore, green banking is nothing but an oxymoron. That is what maximum people think. You might wonder why banks would care about our nature. Moreover, if you follow ethical ways to store your money, what issues can there be?
First and foremost, you must know that your way of storing money will have a key role in securing a greener environment that would benefit you in the times to come. Reconsidering all the investments that you have made is, of course, another major step towards achieving your objective of green banking. Check out the following for more information.
What Banks Do With Your Money?
Banks do have a lot of power. They have a significant role to play in shaping up society. The banks have both positive and negative influences on society. Around 95 to 97% of the money in the economy comes from commercial banks when they are giving out loans. The rest 3% is paper money.
Therefore, instead of social requirements or ethics, commercial interest has control over distribution and wealth creation. Power has got to do a lot with money distribution. Those with more money are more powerful. Uncontrolled leading means uncontrolled debt, and uncontrolled debt leads to financial crises. Eventually, it ends in government bailouts that are quite costly.
Why Aren’t Maximum Banks Green?
When you develop a current account at a bank of your choice, avail a loan, mortgage, insurance, or take out a pension or ISA. This means that your money doesn’t sit idle. In many cases, the banks tend to re-invest your funds in industries that don’t follow ethical practices. Though these industries are wealthy, maximum are oil and fossil fuels companies. You would probably never wish to see your money going into such projects.
However, these banks don’t come out lear with what they do with your money. Many customers are not aware of the banks’ practices and have become a customer only to get the benefits of the deals they advertise. Most banks are not transparent enough. Indirectly, you become part of such unethical practices. Nobody would willingly be a part of this. To your knowledge, paper money is not vegan. There are very few people who know this.
Is There Anything Called Green Banking?
Is green banking possible? Do they even exist? These are the questions that might be cropping up in your head right now. An economy requires a fully transparent banking system to be successful and sustainable. There should be an economic system where financial stability, social justice, and economic sustainability co-exist. An economy can be successful only if it meets everyone’s requirements and not only a special few. If you wish to see the economy going in the right direction, you need to decelerate your consumption rate.
Not only you, everyone who knows about the facts and truly cares should do. As responsible citizens, everyone must bank their funds in a way that propels the nation’s economy forward. Besides that, it would be even better if the economy is in complete sync with the ecology of the planet. People have the right to ask for a fair system that aligns with personal and societal ethics and values. Green banking is a way to attain this objective. And you will find a host of alternatives to these mainstream banks. This is the perfect time when you can play your role in the green banking movement.
How To Do Green Banking?
In case you want to know where your money is going and how your bank is using it, you need to avoid these big banks in the first place. They don’t have a nice track record as far as lending and investments are concerned. A majority of the alternative banks are known for their investment policies that are quite aggressive.
If you want to find out which bank would be suitable for you, you need to do some research work. Your friends and family might be unaware of all these facts and hardly know how their money is invested unethically by the banks. They are engaging in immoral activities inadvertently. Your responsibility should be to make the truth known to them.
