Ethical, vegan and environmentally friendly benchmarks
The Vegan Climate Index®
Our Vegan Climate Indexes are passively managed, rules-based indices of large-cap stocks, screened according to vegan and climate-conscious principles.
- Our indexes exclude companies engaged in animal exploitation, defense, human rights abuses, fossil fuels extraction and energy production, and other environmentally damaging activities.
- Our indexes provide a benchmark for cruelty-free and environmentally conscious investing.
- Our indexes demonstrate that it is possible to achieve broad-based US market exposure while conforming to vegan and environmentally-conscious principles.
Breakdown of exclusions
Breakdown of animals slaughtered
Each year some 60-70 billion land animals killed and over 100 billion fish
Breakdown of animals tested upon
Each year some 115 million animals tested upon
Impact Metrics
Our indexes can be shown to outperform a standard broad market index of Large Cap stocks on dimensions of:
- lower greenhouse gas emissions.
- less waste pollution.
- reduced freshwater utilisation.
- greater percentage of portfolio devoted to environmental industries.
- reduced percentage of portfolio invested in environmentally damaging industries.
- no animal cruelty or slaughter.
- no animal exploitation.
- no animal hunting.
- no animal capture.
- no animal products.
- no animal testing.
- no genetic modification of animals.
Our approach applies not only exclusion but a replacement of unacceptable companies in the large-cap space by mid-cap companies which adhere to our ethical principles. These companies are added to the extent that industry proportions drop appreciably below the levels in standard market benchmarks, and they allow our indexes to benefit from the growth potential of vegan, plant-based and cruelty-free businesses in this new paradigm.
Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.
MAHATMA GANDHI
Our Policies
Against Animal Abuse
ANIMAL EXPLOITATION
Animal testing and any animal-derived products
MISTREATMENT
Animals used in sport or entertainment
HUNTING AND TRAPPING
Taking animals from the wild
Energy and the Environment
Combining vegan principles with being fossil-free removes the vast majority of the sources of greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.
Fossil-fuel using power plants, residential and commercial heating, road transport, chemical and petrochemical industries, oil and gas production, energy industry processes and coal mining, together with deforestation (principally for animal agriculture), livestock and soil degradation from fertilisers and pesticides together account for 90-95% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Engagement
Beyond Investing does not simply exclude, it engages with excluded companies to encourage them to identify those activities which are harmful to animals and the environment and to attempt to resolve this by a change in their business practices.
For more information
Email or call for more details on documentation on our proprietary policies and processes for index screening and construction.
