Investors are looking to align their investments with their values, writes Tom McKinlay.
"Money, so they say, is the root of all evil today".

That was Roger Water's take on the subject back in 1973, in the chart-topping Pink Floyd song. And if the received wisdom has softened somewhat in the intervening years, the question is still out there: can money do good?

Well, there is some encouraging news on that front. More money is being invested in such a way as to avoid abetting the worst of intentions, the likes of cluster bombs and cigarettes, according to research on trends in New Zealand.

Big Oil has repeatedly lied about the impact of burning fossil fuels on our environment. In a repeat of tactics that delayed tobacco regulation for decades, the major oil companies have hidden evidence and paid for junk science by climate deniers. As a result of inaction, millions of people have suffered from air pollution, toxic waste and climate change, particularly those who are vulnerable and living in impoverished communities.

Angry KiwiSaver providers have criticised the low ethical ratings they've been given by online start-up BetterSaver.

BetterSaver, a private company founded by Joe Taylor, launched on Monday giving KiwiSaver schemes an ethical rating between A and F.

The public can access the ratings for free online, but not a single KiwiSaver provider got a rank of better than C+, which Sam Stubbs, founder of the Simplicity KiwiSaver scheme, said was unfair.

A large majority of New Zealanders expect their Kiwisaver and investment funds to be invested ethically and are ready to shift their funds if company prac>ces are inconsistent with their values.

Animal cruelty tops the list of things KiwiSaver investors don't want their money invested in, research to be unveiled by former Green MP Barry Coates shows.

It ranks even more highly in savers' hate list than military weapons and tobacco, both of which KiwiSaver providers have moved to exclude, following a public outcry after media reports

It's time for rules to define what constitutes a "green" KiwiSaver fund.

Law firm Russell McVeagh has called for rules to determine "when a fund constitutes a 'green fund' and can be referred to as such".

They could be added to the Zero Carbon Bill, or be a set of standards developed by the KiwiSaver industry.

The law firm also said the rules should set out what "disclosures" KiwiSaver providers should make to demonstrate the greenness of their investment processes.

KiwiSaver investors care if their savings cause environmental or social harm. And many more would care if major fund managers backed up their commitments to responsible investment with action.

New Zealand investment managers may be neglecting their duty to put investors' interests first by taking an exclusion-only approach to responsible investment, a major KiwiSaver provider has warned.

Kiwi Wealth, a KiwiSaver provider which is owned by the government, ACC and the NZ Superannuation Fund, has published a white paper on its take on responsible investment at the New Zealand Responsible Investment Conference in Auckland today.

KiwiSaver provider Kiwi Wealth says it will cut out investments in weapons, tobacco and whaling companies as part of a new responsible investment strategy as well as companies with a poor track record in environmental, social and governance areas.

The move comes a year after Radio NZ and the Herald highlighted controversial investments made by KiwiSaver providers.

There's been a dramatic increase in ethical investments since the public outcry over KiwiSaver investments send fund managers scrambling to dump millions of dollars in weapons and tobacco companies.

Investment in ethical funds that exclude such companies jumped 2500 percent to $42.7 billion by the end of 2016, up from $1.6bn in 2015, a Responsible Investment Association of Australasia (RIAA) report showed.