Triodos global equities impact fund

gilesm89

My girlfriend wants to start investing to grow a proportion of her savings. I have shown her some low cost platforms and funds.

However, she is looking for an ethical (primarily geared towards cutting out unsustainable businesses) fund, which I do not know much about.

We went through a long list of ethical funds but a lot of them had holdings in companies like ExxonMobil. She found one from Triodos called the global equities impact fund. This appears to invest in larger sustainable companies worldwide.
https://www.triodos.co.uk/ethical-investments/global-equities-impact-fund/LU0785617266

My main two concerns with it are:
- Annual charge is 1.4% all together (which will become a fairly substantial fee as her money grows)
- 25% is invested in Japanese companies. I am no expert but have seen the the Japanese stock market has a fairly shaky past.

Has anyone invested in this fund? I would like to hear your thoughts.
Or does anyone have any suggestions for other sustainable funds?
Thanks

george4064

I would be slightly cautious about that Triodos fund.

If I were you, I'd look at a good source of information (such as HL), open up their funds list and search for funds with either of these words "sustain" "impact" "ethical" etc.. Link here: https://www.hl.co.uk/funds

Without knowing your girlfriends attitude to risk/circumstances etc, I would look for a global equity fund that fits in with her beliefs (read the factsheets/KIID available). From there, find a suitable platform (check https://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/) and make sure you can invest in your chose fund via that platform.

cloud_dog

gilesm89 wrote: »

My girlfriend wants to start investing to grow a proportion of her savings. I have shown her some low cost platforms and funds.

However, she is looking for an ethical (primarily geared towards cutting out unsustainable businesses) fund, which I do not know much about.

We went through a long list of ethical funds but a lot of them had holdings in companies like ExxonMobil. She found one from Triodos called the global equities impact fund. This appears to invest in larger sustainable companies worldwide.
https://www.triodos.co.uk/ethical-investments/global-equities-impact-fund/LU0785617266

My main two concerns with it are:
- Annual charge is 1.4% all together (which will become a fairly substantial fee as her money grows)
- 25% is invested in Japanese companies. I am no expert but have seen the the Japanese stock market has a fairly shaky past.

Has anyone invested in this fund? I would like to hear your thoughts.
Or does anyone have any suggestions for other sustainable funds?
Thanks

Have you looked at Morning Star.

Ixel

If you aren't just limited to choosing funds then perhaps one of these ETF's might also be an option, depending on platform too of course.

https://www.justetf.com/uk/find-etf.html?assetClass=class-equity&equityStrategy=Social%2B/%2BEnvironmental&groupField=index&fsg=more100

Albermarle

We went through a long list of ethical funds but a lot of them had holdings in companies like ExxonMobil.

There are quite a lot of so called 'light green' funds that avoid tobacco, arms etc but otherwise pretty much invest in anything else. There are less ' dark green' funds which will also exclude oil companies etc .and usually they will be more expensive .

Annual charge is 1.4% all together (which will become a fairly substantial fee as her money grows)

I am afraid there is a cost to manage these funds , researching what is sustainable etc. At least with Triodos, you know they are committed to these ideas and not just playing at it .
One of the larger investment companies who have made some positive commitments and have some green funds are Legal and General , so you could have a look at them .
https://www.legalandgeneral.com/investments/funds/full-fund-range/future-world/

[Deleted User]

John Edwards (of book and web site fame) has done a lot of writing about ethical funds. http://diyinvestoruk.blogspot.com

jelajelavic

Albermarle wrote: »

There are quite a lot of so called 'light green' funds that avoid tobacco, arms etc but otherwise pretty much invest in anything else. There are less ' dark green' funds which will also exclude oil companies etc .and usually they will be more expensive .

I am afraid there is a cost to manage these funds , researching what is sustainable etc. At least with Triodos, you know they are committed to these ideas and not just playing at it .
One of the larger investment companies who have made some positive commitments and have some green funds are Legal and General , so you could have a look at them .
https://www.legalandgeneral.com/investments/funds/full-fund-range/future-world/

I have been having the same problem searching for these types of funds and also looked at the Legal & General funds but even the climate change fund has oil and gas (Shell is the second largest holding) so I guess puts it into your light green category - I note that the fund has less Oil & Gas than a general world index fund but still not zero.

Avoiding tobacco and Arms seems to be quite easy but getting zero oil seems to be harder.

The Triodos fund does seem to tick a lot of the boxes and can accept the higher fees based on the more sustainable and ethical funds. However, I am also slightly concerned about the Japanese weighting but maybe will need to mix with a few other funds if I choose to go with Triodos.

Wildsound

gilesm89 wrote: »

We went through a long list of ethical funds but a lot of them had holdings in companies like ExxonMobil.

Not to sound like some sort of advocate for this company, but have you asked the funds directly or looked into why they hold Exxon?

My memory isn't great, so research it yourself, but we had a fund manager come in mid last year who mentioned that it was one of Europe's largest suppliers of offshore wind farms (if I recall) and was apparently making big steps in what they consider "the right direction" which is why they invested in them.

Ultimately, if you don't trust what a fund manager is doing, or disagree with what they are investing in, then you will have to find one you do trust or do it yourself by investing directly in companies which meet your views.

Albermarle

Yes , the oil companies are slowly morphing into 'energy' companies and eventually will be less and less reliant on pumping oil out of the ground .

jelajelavic

Wildsound wrote: »

Not to sound like some sort of advocate for this company, but have you asked the funds directly or looked into why they hold Exxon?

My memory isn't great, so research it yourself, but we had a fund manager come in mid last year who mentioned that it was one of Europe's largest suppliers of offshore wind farms (if I recall) and was apparently making big steps in what they consider "the right direction" which is why they invested in them.
.

They supply lubricants for operating wind turbines but not wind turbines themselves (that's companies like Vestas, Enercon, Siemens)

A lot of Oil & Gas Companies are doing things in the renewable space these days but its a tiny fraction of their overall businesses.