The scientific community has established a  strong consensus the climate change is real and attributed predominantly by human generated carbon emissions into the atmosphere. If we choose not to deny the evidence supporting this, then we can think of ways that we can reduce our negative impact on the environment. Obvious solutions implicate our personal behavior on how we consume and dispose of goods and services in our daily lives. Changing how and what we acquire and discard are all valid behavioral changes that, combined, can make a significant impact on carbon emissions. In addition, we can pay attention to how our savings and disposable income is invested for morally sensible and environmentally friendly uses.

Underlying company reports for currently owned and potential investments can be analyzed to determine their environmental impact through emissions. This can be difficult and time consuming where relevant data is not readily available and where investments are essentially products of multiple underlying assets.

Fortunately, services exist that undertake this analysis to provide environmental and moral metric scoring for investments. Community driven and AI document mining efforts will make this type of transparency more prevalent moving forward. An example of this initiative is the ‘As You Sow’ non-profit organization that provides the Fossil Free Fundssite allowing to gauge the carbon footprint of a stock ticker or investment fund name.