New Online Tool Empowers Individuals to Divest their Portfolios from Fossil Fuels

Fossil Free Funds

 

Fossil Free Funds, a new data-driven web platform created by As You Sow and sustainable-investment ratings expert HIP Investor, aims to provide an easy and interactive way to find fossil free funds and screen mutual funds. Featuring mutual fund holdings data from Morningstar, the tool will offer an interactive way to look behind the scenes and see which mutual funds have holdings in fossil fuel companies. Users will be able to select their own fossil fuel screen, choosing from exclusion criteria like the Carbon Underground 200 (the top 200 fossil fuel companies ranked by reserves), as well as utilities, smaller oil, gas and consumable fuel companies, and fossil fuel service industry companies like Halliburton.

The initial release will feature funds that are either completely or mostly fossil free. The tool will soon expand to add hundreds of mutual funds to enable anyone to check their portfolio or retirement fund to see exactly what they hold, how exposed they are to fossil fuels and the attendant risks, and how well their investments are aligned with their values.

“Almost no one really knows what they actually hold in their 401(k) and mutual funds, and how those investments align with their vision for a clean-energy future,” says As You Sow CEO Andrew Behar. “The Fossil Free Funds website and app shine a light on this issue and enables each of us to customize our portfolio to build the world we want to live in.”

Fossil Free Funds is currently in beta testing, and will be released to the public soon – stay tuned.