Does anyone have any advice or opinions they can share about ethically-conscious ASX ETFs?

There’s a few lists around, for example:

But it’s difficult to have confidence in any of these ETFs without looking into them extensively, so I was hoping I might be able to leverage the community knowledge if people here have already looked into them.

I figure many funds may be less ethical than they put on. For example, ASX:VETH excludes fossil fuels, but has a large exposure to the Big Four banks, who are big investors in fossil fuels.

Also, return figures might be misleading if a fund’s ethical criteria bias its holdings towards certain industries, meaning the returns could be boosted by one-off events in those industries. For example, Motley Fool notes that ASX:ETHI is biased towards US tech stocks, including Apple and NVIDIA, and so its performance last year was boosted by the AI landrush.

Fossil fuels and weapons are my highest priorities for exclusion, if that’s useful context.

  • Hanrahan@slrpnk.netEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    but has a large exposure to the Big Four banks, who are big investors in fossil fuels.

    I think its impossible to “invest” thematically with an ETF and avoid it.

    Do you invest in a mining ETF that has a company mining Lithium that emits prodigiously to prodice the Lithium and sources finance from banks and destroys the environment doing it ?

    Fossil fuels and weapons are my highest priorities for exclusion, if that’s useful context.

    Scope 1,2 and 3 emisisons ? Eg Brisbane Airport claim they are net zeo (from memory) but only if you ignore the massive carpark beside it and jets flying in and out.

    As to weapons, do you avoid companies like Droneshied?

    I get what you want to do and understand your struggle but ignoring first order effects is hard enough, once you add in 2nd and 3rd order then it’s impossible .

    I now stay away from banks, mining, alcohol, insurance and gambling but that’s my personal choice and it still leaves me with lots of options. I invest nearly everything directly though and have since I purchased my first shares in 1989.

    I’d say its impossible but do the best you can :)

    Your probably better off going long companies you think do a better job then others. You don’t need 100 companies, find 6 and just add to those posistions when you can.