A new vegan stock index from the USA will offer all investors new and more sustainable investment opportunities from June 2018. The upcoming “US Vegan Climate Index” focuses exclusively on environmentally friendly companies, most of which are in the vegan sector.The US Vegan Climate Index was developed by the three vegan financial experts Claire Smith (interview with vegconomist), Lee Coates and Larry Abele of Beyond Advisors, the research arm of the vegan investment platform Beyond Investing in Europe, and will be launched on June 6th this year. The index will start with a value of more than 255 billion US dollars. All companies listed in the Solactive US Large Cap Index which are active or involved in areas such as animal testing, animal products, animals in sports & entertainment, military & defence, tobacco, fossil fuels and energy generation from fossil fuels are excluded from this.
It will therefore be much easier for investors in the future to stand up for ethically sound values and to invest in appropriately oriented companies. According to Claire Smith, co-founder of the index, the US Vegan Climate Index will present “significantly better” figures on CO2 emissions, water consumption and waste. Furthermore, there are strict guidelines in favour of animal welfare and animal protection.
The companies that appear on the index are “aggregated and perform better financially,” says Katrina Fox of Forbes. Over the past five years, companies have improved their overall performance by almost 30 percent. According to Claire Smith, the change in performance is due to “broken business models” that exploit animals and damage the environment. “There is no future for these industries if they continue to do what they do. We are confident that either this negative performance will continue or that these companies will alter to be eligible for our index.” Smith adds.
