If you, like me, are a girl who drinks her expendable cash, just roll your IRA into a green fund and consider yourself greened.
But, if you’ve got some cash you don’t know what to do with, try calling Greg Wendt. This LA-based certified financial planner’s deep into socially and environmentally responsible investing.
Greg points out that at a lot of financial firms, investing in SRI (socially responsible investment) mutual funds is often discouraged, mainly cuz bigger, less socio-eco-friendly funds often offer better profit margins for the company. Yet SRI funds can let you put your money where your passions are — and engage with issues near and dear to your heart through shareholder activism.
I can’t vouch for Greg’s investing skills, cuz I don’t have the money to try out his services. I do, however, get the sense that the guy’s serious about social and environmental awareness.
In fact, he even took the time out to chat with a couple Starbucks reps who claimed, in a speech at the SRI in the Rockies conference last September, that all of Starbucks coffee is fairly traded. Greg took this to mean that Starbucks was 100% fair trade certified, only to find out otherwise. He then spoke with the Starbucks rep about how the “fairly traded” thing was a “characterization that many of my colleagues and I found a bit misleading and opaque…”
Of course, I had to break it to Greg that Starbucks isn’t even all “fairly traded,” since 41% of their coffee’s bought through middlemen without any clue as to how much the farmers are getting out of the deal.
Which prompted Greg to suggest working together to get Starbucks’ ear on this issue. Which we challengers have been trying to do, but perhaps Greg — who manages millions of his clients’ dollars, some of it in Starbucks, I’m guessing — can get Cindy of Starbucks to finally call back.
Cuz it’s been 11 days since I left my first voicemail. I left her a fifth one yesterday.
C’mon now Cindy. This is a bad time to stop talking to activists. I mean, many of us’re gonna be at the USFT conference in under a month, coming up with action plans for the next year –
Greg Wendt, CFP. c/o Enright Premier Wealth Advisors. 11400 W. Olympic Blvd. Ste. 200. Los Angeles. 800.272.2328 x 122.
Aha! Hit ‘em in the ol’ business case! A rep for Greenwashing among the many and many ethical investment companies may well have a direct effect on share value — something no option-vested executive wants to think about!
Can’t wait to hear . . .
Comment by Roger, Gone Green — January 19, 2006 @ 7:08 pm
Siel,
I took my first Starbucks Challenge ever today…coincidentally, it was my first time to ever go to Starbucks. The barista had to think for only a second before jumping into action to get me a french press of Cafe Esteema…then she informed me it would cost extra and I said “No, it’s not” and we had a short discussion about it with the assistant manager who explained that he was trained that way and said there was even a button for charging for french press on the cash register. I informed him he was wrong and asked for his name and number, which is Miguel Ramirez (323) 874-2135. He insisted he was right and they charged everyone extra for french press, but gave the cup to us for free anyway and then spent the entire time we waited searching through his manual. He was such a nice guy that felt really bad and I promised him I’d call and apologize if I was wrong…was I? I’m fairly certain there isn’t an extra charge. Please let me know.
Comment by Sean — January 19, 2006 @ 10:18 pm
Ok — Now it’s just getting depressing. I actually successfully got a cup of FT coffee — for un-inflated prices — at this store on Sunset & La Brea a couple months ago. Yes — You’re right — You should not, NOT have to pay extra for fair trade coffee.
It’s really reached a ridic point. WTF are the LA managers we met with in Dec. doing? I’ll give them a call tomorrow to figure out what’s going on — I mean, I’m hoping the local people will be more responsive, cuz Cindy @ HQ hasn’t bothered to return any of my 5 vmails –
Comment by Siel — January 19, 2006 @ 10:45 pm