FaithInvest and the Laudato Si' Movement, a global network of Catholics working for climate and ecological justice, have joined forces to create new guides to help faith communities align their financial activities with their faith values.
The guides are aimed at dioceses, universities, schools, and religious congregations and cover four areas: sustainable banking, investing, divesting, and insurance.
They include plenty of practical tips and recommendations for how organisations can carry out an assessment of their financial activities in these areas.
Lorna Gold, Director of Movement Building at FaithInvest, said: 'We are delighted to work with the Laudato Si’ Movement to provide these financial guides to support organisations as they consider how to use their financial assets and investments for the common good. The resources offer practical guidance to help point the way forward.'
The guides take a three-part See-Discern-Act approach in analysing the subject of aligning finances and values. Readers can expect to gain:
a better understanding of why sustainable finance is vital to “correcting models of growth which have proved incapable of ensuring respect for the environment” (Laudato Si’, 6).
a step-by-step guide to help them review their current financial practices to determine if they are supporting unethical and unsustainable businesses.
advice on how to move forward to a more sustainable model of banking, investing, divesting, and insurance, including, for example:
establishing a committee of leaders who contribute to financial and social decisions;
determining the right sustainable institution that meets their goals, with a suggested checklist to create profiles for easy comparison;
making a final decision based on their process of approval; and
monitoring for the long term.
The guides are available via the Laudato Si’ Movement website and the Laudato Si' Action Platform.
You can also find the English versions of the guides here; translations in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, German, Polish, Swahili and Tagalog, will be uploaded soon.