Finance sector needs to act greener

Last month London hosted the Ethical Corporations' Sustainable Finance Summit. 2 bankers from large financial institutions, namely Barclays and HSBC, say that banks need to start to make a change with regards to more ethical investments and greener actions.

The vice chairman of Barclays, Gary Hoffman started off saying that things needed to be addressed and changed now. He pointed out that at Barclays they are looking into their investments and starting to refuse to lend money to those companies who will have a negative impact on social and environmental factors. Those investors wanting to put money into financing unsustainable operations will find it much harder to get funding from banks in the future as their policies change.

Barclays currently have a plan that works on 5 principles to try and make a difference to climate change. These include increasing their energy efficiency, buying only green energy, becoming carbon neutral, offering climate related products and trying to shape new policy. They also want to encourage and promote ethics within their marketing and the products they offer to their customers such as public transport incentives.

Jon Williams, from HSBC, said "Climate change can be tackled at minimal economic cost if we do it today". The cost of reducing carbon emissions worldwide today will be minimal compared to what it will cost in say 50 years time.

Banks and other companies are having to change their outlook on sustainabilty and ethics as consumers demand more information on their social and environmental policies. Banks cannot be blamed for the actions of its customers but because of their power and influence within society, they can certainly help shape consumers choices.

Hopefully other financial companies will follow suit, everyone can do their own little thing to help contribute to the cause, but it is the big conglomerates that will make the most impact. You can read more at www.ClimateChangeCorp.com