The world's fifth largest insurer, and largest insurer in the UK, Aviva, has decided to go carbon neutral worldwide. By the end of March 2007 they even plan to have offset the 110,000 tonnes of carbon they emitted in 2006. All their UK energy is sourced from renewable sources, and they're moving into tree planting and wind turbines. [GT]
Norwich Union-owner goes carbon neutral
Related stories: BSkyB goes carbon neutral! | Economist carbon-offsets global warming issue | Do carbon-offset schemes work?
smile, the internet branch of The Co-Operative Bank, is going the extra mile to help endangered species around the world.
Open a current account and smile will donate £50 to WWF-UK and adopt an orang-utan for you, too!
As if the feel-good factor of banking with the only UK clearing bank with an ethical policy and donating to WWF wasn't enough, WWF will send you an adoption pack for your Orang-utan. This includes a cuddly toy, information booklet and a picture. Aaah.
Go through the link on this page to open your account.
Related stories: Money and Finance
How would you like to do Good With Money without any evil to yourself? Cooperative Insurance has been ranked high in customer satisfaction compared to regular high street banks, and also provides ethical insurance, mortgages, and even investment funds. As part of their "every penny counts" campaign, every £100 spent turns into 1.25p donation to charity; they offset 20% of your vehicle's carbon emissions at no extra charge to you; and the CIS solar tower generates enough power per year to make 9 million cups of tea. But here's a practical motivator: they offer one interest rate for everything, whether you're buying or pulling out cash, where most banks have a good rate for consumption and a ruinous one for cash. Check it out yourself - your wallet won't be sorry. [GT]
Cooperative Insurance [via hugg]
Related stories: Teenage Tycoons To Turn Tenners Into Social Profit | Yes Insurance Offers Cashback to Hybrid Car Owners | EIRIS ethical investment research
Investment management company Standard Life released the results of its annual Ethical Investor Survey a few days ago.
The company's ethical fund customers were asked to rank the issues that most concern them, and this year it turns out that they would prefer Standard Life "to favour investment companies that encourage, maintain and improve the quality of working conditions in their global supply chains". Numbers two and three on the list of companies favoured by investors were firms involved in controlling pollution and those involved in developing or using renewable energy sources.
On the flip side, survey respondents wanted to avoid having their money poured into companies with poor human rights policies and/or operating in countries with poor human rights records, those involved in producing military weapons and those clearing tropical forests.
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10,000 teenagers are being challenged to turn a £10 loan into a social enterprise. In essence, whoever takes the loan has a month to invest it. Prizes are awarded to the top 50 profit makers and, crucially, prizes are also awarded to the 50 judged to have made the most (presumably positive) social impact.
The 'Make Your Mark With A Tenner' (MYMWAT) scheme is funded by a "marketing guru" (according to the BBC), Andrew Reynolds, who said he had donated the money so that youngsters had a chance to show they were "not all a bunch of violent hoodies".
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Brashly conceding that magazines don't make money off subscriptions, GOOD Magazine goes so far as to promise to donate the full $20 USD for six issues to your pick of a dozen charities, ranging from Creative Commons to the World Wildlife Fund. Contains articles on affordable and attractive housing and fair trade coffee online, and various pieces on economics available only in the print version.[GT]
GOOD Magazine
Related stories: Green Parenting Guru | Natural parenting magazine | New Consumer: The UK's only fair trade magazine
Got a hybrid? Need insurance? If you go with Yesinsurance.co.uk, they'll flat out give you £20. Then they'll donate £20 more to Climatesure for emissions offsetting. Considering that hybrids cost several thousand extra pounds up front, I'm not sure how far the £40 will get them, but it's certainly generating them a lot of free buzz, and more carbon offsetting is always good. [GT]
Yesinsurance.co.uk [via Treehugger]
Related stories: Green insurance for your fuel-efficient vehicle | Better World Club | Make it a Treeflight
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