Meet the Nuns Who Created Their Own Climate Solutions Fund In a collaboration with Morgan Stanley, they put together $130 million.

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/07/meet-the-nuns-who-created-their-own-climate-solutions-fund/

My Response: A great  example of nuns leading the way to environmental justice  through structural change. They are showing that putting our money where our hearts are can move mountains! Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP

The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation in Nashville, Tenn.John Russell/AP

"It’s been five years since Pope Francis’ “Laudato Si,” the celebrated 225-page encyclical in which the pope called for environmental justice and fundamental social change in the face of global warming. To mark the occasion earlier this month, the Vatican urged Catholics around the world to take practical steps to fulfill this mission—including by divesting from fossil fuel-based industries. And in the US, 16 congregations of Dominican nuns (named for their patron saint, Saint Dominic) debuted a collaboration with Morgan Stanley to create a $130 million “climate solutions fund.”

In a press release, the bank called the fund a “first of its kind collaboration … to find investment solutions which focus on climate change and aiding marginalized communities that are disproportionately impacted by global warming.” Examples of the fund’s “holistic” approach to climate solutions could include “early stage investments in energy efficiency software” as well as “more mature opportunities like fruit producers with water-saving hydroponic irrigation systems.”

“We wanted this not just for ourselves but for other investors—not just faith communities.”

Sister Patricia Daly, a Dominican nun from a congregation in Caldwell, New Jersey, helped create the fund. The nuns began organizing the fund in 2018 after they pooled $46 million. Daly said the sisters have long wanted to invest in companies and technology that are actively working toward the United Nations sustainable development goals, which include ending poverty, improving access to clean energy, curbing climate change, and more. When they couldn’t find a fund with that focus—most sustainable investment funds do not holistically address all of those goals, according to Daly—the congregations enlisted Morgan Stanley to create a new fund themselves and set a standard for future investing."