Invest wisely: this is how your money works for a better future

Do you want to do something for the environment and climate without much effort and really make a difference? The web is full of simple, practical tips for a more climate-friendly life.

Here you can calculate how many greenhouse gases your lifestyle causes and here you will find tips on what you can change quickly and easily:

The big points for the climate in your life

These are the areas in your life with the greatest impact on the climate, the so-called "big points":

- Nutrition
- consumption
- Mobility
- Living and heating
- Power consumption and
- Your money

You eat "organic", (largely) meatless or even vegan, maybe you are already a food saver / Food sharer, buy most of it unwrapped, have a lot of clothes and equipment, prefer to ride a bike or train, live in a not too large, well-insulated apartment with a solar system on the roof, use green electricity (for example from Greenpeace Energy, ray of hope, EWS or natural power) and want to know what else you can do?

Invest wisely: leave your bank or savings bank

Because: what use is all your commitment if your bank finances armaments, oil drilling and other climate-damaging projects with your savings or speculates with food?

There is another way: In most European countries, some “sustainable, ethical” banks are now offering online and offline checking and savings accounts as well as securities accounts that do not harm the environment or the climate any further. These exclude investments in weapons, genetic engineering, animal testing and child labor, the oil and gas industry, nuclear energy, and many other environmentally and climate-damaging companies. You concentrate on “green” businesses and put your money, for example, in solar funds and other contributions to sustainable development.

The largest in Germany is the GLS Bank. Then there is that Environmental bank, the Triodes (in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Spain), the Ethics bank, the online banking app Tomorrow with the first “climate-neutral current account” and a few more.

When you buy stocks or equity funds, look carefully at what the companies are doing with your money. You can find tips on sustainable investments at, for example ecoreporter. They report on "green" stocks and funds as well as on environmentally and climate-friendly direct investments, for example in solar funds and wind power plants. Also the Stiftung Warentest and the consumer portal Financial tip  have information on sustainable investments.

While your money is guaranteed by the state at all banks and savings banks in the European Union up to 100.000 euros in the event of bankruptcy, direct investments are entrepreneurial investments. That means: If, for example, a solar fund or another company to which you have lent money or in which you have invested goes bankrupt, your money is gone, irretrievably lost.

Higher interest rates, greater risk

It is the same with Crowd Investing. Platforms like Lend money to your environment, GLS crowd, ecoligo, Investment portOr Africa Greentec mediate investments in mostly meaningful, sustainable projects. They promise astonishingly high interest rates of sometimes five percent and more. Of course, you are taking a higher risk. Here, too, the basic rule applies: the higher the interest you are promised, the greater the risk that such a project will go bankrupt and you will no longer see your money again. Here you should only invest sensibly that you don't absolutely need and, above all, yours Spread investments widely. That means: It is better to invest a little money in many different projects than larger sums in a few projects. Then a single bankruptcy won't hit you so hard.

If you become more in-depth with alternative economy, Money, environment and climate, you can, for example, the newsletter of the citizens' initiative Financial turnaround or the critical investor subscribe to. Also attack and other organizations have a lot of information on the subject.