Although there are a number of KiwiSaver funds marketed as ethical or socially responsible, the Sustainable Business Network, is seeing how much interest there is a new fund.
The Network has launched a survey which aims to identify demand and create a sustainable KiwiSaver fund for New Zealand.
It says that KiwiSaver funds currently have little to no sustainability criteria. “This means that when fund managers select companies to invest in on New Zealanders’ behalf, they don’t include environmental or social factors as part of their investment criteria,” it says in a release.
“A growing number of New Zealand businesses are providing solutions to some of our environmental and social issues. We want to develop investment criteria that will help to grow these sorts of businesses,” says Rachel Brown, CEO of the Sustainable Business Network.
“A set of positive criteria, which would align well with SBN’s aim of turning New Zealand into a model sustainable nation, would reward companies in areas such as clean technology, sustainable agriculture and more.”
The survey forms part of the Sustainable Business Network’s project to create a sustainable KiwiSaver fund for New Zealand. The results of the survey will be taken to the finance industry to find a solution.
“We want to know what New Zealanders want from a sustainable KiwiSaver investment fund,” Brown says.