It’s time. More and more of us are waking up to the reality of the climate crisis. With the devastating fires in Australia, the threat of pipeline expansion through protected indigenous lands, and the five superfund sites in our Bronx community, we can no longer ignore the glaring warning signs of climate change. And we can longer ignore our personal and corporate obligation to continue to invest our dollars responsibly.
2020 Vision
In January 2019, we took a more serious look at our environmental footprint and the output of our carbon emissions. By April of 2019, we celebrated Earth Day with the announcement that we were officially carbon-neutral. But this was just the beginning. Over the last several months, we’ve been working to monitor the impact of our investments. As a recent New York Times article by environmental activists, Lennox Yearwood Jr. and Bill McKibben, called “Want to Do Something About Climate Change? Follow the Money,” describes it: “If you want to stop climate change, follow the money.”
When you follow the money of many big banks, you find billions of dollars lent to fund oil drilling and new infrastructure for fossil fuel extraction, choosing short-term profits over the long term health and sustainability of our planet. For example, in 2019, JP Morgan Chase lent over $195B to gas and oil companies. And who is lending them the money to invest? Their customers. Cleary put, if you bank with JP Morgan Chase, your hard-earned dollars are funding the climate crisis. But there’s an easy solution. Move your money to a community bank or credit union that, like us, has no investments in fossil fuel funds.
“Cutting off that flow of cash may be the single quickest step we can take to rein in the fossil fuel industry and slow the rapid warming of the earth,” state Yearwood and McKibben.
Today, more than ever, divestment from fossil fuels into local, community-based institutions is essential.
If you want to stop climate change, follow the money. If you want to rest peacefully at night, knowing you’re doing your part to shift the climate crisis and create local impact in New York City, move your accounts to us. Vote with your dollars and open a Green Checking account with us today. We will continue to assess the impact of our investments as a key part of our 2020 vision and hope you will also.
Read about our journey to carbon neutral. Read the New York Times article Want to Do Something About Climate Change? Follow the Money.
