I’ll start by saying I don’t trust any bank to give me a list of green investments. Mine has a “pay monthly and we will invest for you” but the list of companies it has are all from BlackRock and have a bunch of US companies, oil and gas giants pretending to have green goals, and techno-fascist companies like Tesla on the list because “they’re going electric”.
My time is limited and I’m not willing to spend hours every day scrutinising companies and initiatives to ensure they are green, sustainable, and socially aware. Following green news, there is news about whatever new battery is in whichever stage, a new company testing a carbo-fibre something improve whatever new thing will turn a turbine, and so on, but some of those companies either aren’t public or so fresh it would be risky to invest.
How do I safely and lazily invest in green European businesses? I’m willing to pay for the service, but not a wild amount as I don’t have a wild amount to invest either. Also, the return should be more than just letting it sit in my savings account. Risk is fine, an average return of 2% isn’t.
Okay, first off, BlackRock isn’t as bad as you think, their controversies section on Wikipedia literally lists being too focused on ESG. They’re far from perfect, but they get all the flak while Blackstone is the one buying up entire neighborhoods worth of single-family homes so they can jack up rent. BlackRock is more of a passive investor, they make most of their money by selling investment services, rather than making money by investing it in companies directly. Usually. But of course I understand wanting your fees to go to a European-registered publicly traded company rather than an American-registered publicly traded company. I was actually looking for more eurocentric ETFs sold by European providers a while back.
European alternatives to BlackRock’s iShares are Amundi (French), Xtrackers (DWS Group, 80% owned by Deutsche Bank which is almost shadier than BlackRock if you ask me) and BNP Paribas Easy (French). There are some smaller ones too. Xtrackers seems to have the most variety, but don’t discount the others just yet. BNP Paribas Easy tends to have lower fees and Amundi has a great selection too.
Now, here’s the bummer: Buying shares in ETFs doesn’t do shit for the companies whose shares the ETF is going to acquire. First off, if you just buy your ETF shares off a market, you’re betting on the value of the ETF going up, but the money you spend goes to the people who held those shares. If you buy the shares in such a way that new shares are created in the ETF, that has a more direct effect on the share prices of the companies that ETF holds. But even then, you’re not REALLY giving them any money. You’re making a bet on them. The share price going up might have a positive effect if they’re trying to raise money by creating new shares, but that’s about it. Really, it’s just a way to feel good about yourself more than anything.