Vegan-friendly, climate conscious ETF set to launch
A new exchange traded fund is set to launch this fall in the U.S. that aims to offer an investment option for animal advocates and environmentalists.
The US Vegan Climate Exchange Traded ETF (VEGN) by Beyond Investing will begin trading Sept. 10 on the New York Stock Exchange, announced the company this week.
The company says that the ETF is the first of its kind in the world. “Until now, vegans and environmentalists have had little choice but to profit from animal cruelty and environmental devastation through their investment options. While interest in socially responsible investing (SRI) continues to grow, the availability of financial products that explicitly reject animal exploitation has been limited, if not completely absent in most markets,” says Beyond Investing, a team of vegan finance professionals in the US, Switzerland and the UK.
The ETF will track the US Vegan Climate Index (ticker VEGAN) launched by Beyond Investing in June, 2018. This Index takes the Solactive US Large Cap index (a proxy for the S&P 500 Index) and “excludes any stocks whose activities are incompatible with a vegan and climate-conscious approach to investing, replacing damaging stocks with midcap alternatives that meet its ethical criteria,” explains the company.
“Our aim is to help vegans and animal activists take the pain out of their portfolios,” explains Claire Smith, CEO of Beyond Investing. “So many compassionate people go to great efforts to avoid buying products that contain animal ingredients or have been subject to cruel testing, but when it comes to their investment options, they’re actively, albeit often unwittingly, supporting companies and industries that exploit and torture animals. Our ETF offers them the opportunity to invest in line with their values. And because we love humans as much as other animals, we have defense and human rights screens as well.”