This week's show is a little different, in that I am interviewing the co-founder of an investment management firm called Karner Blue Capital. I have never thought of interviewing an investment company co-founder until I saw their recent press release titled: Socially responsible investment leader urges a collective reassessment of our relationship with animals to fight global outbreaks of infectious disease. I became curious how investing can make a difference.
On this show we talk about many ways you and I can make contributions to help protect our natural world in terms of volunteering, education, artwork and donations. But do we look closely at the companies we invest in, through say our 401 K s etc in order to make an impact? To be honest, I have not looked at every company in my plan to see how they treat people or animals. Well, we are all about to learn how investing can make an impact. We have been told we can vote with our forks, now we can vote with how we invest to let companies know we care.
Karner Blue Capital is the first of its kind to thoroughly research and choose companies for its Animal Impact Fund and portfolio that rank high in good animal welfare and care for the environment. By investing in companies that have these good practices we can even make more of a difference. This company does not sponsor our show. It is the intention of this show to give you, the listeners, ideas and options of making your own impact in any way you can. Investing for animal welfare is an interesting concept that I thought others would want to learn more about. So enjoy the show. Our guest for this show is co-founder of Karner Blue Capital, Vicki Benjamin. She is also the CEO since it commenced operations as an investment advisor in 2017. Karner Blue Capital is the first investment management firm that offers strategies centered around animal welfare. I like the company saying “compassionate investing with impact!”
In this episode Ms. Benjamin will discuss how she became involved with loving animals and how she was driven to have a career that meant something to her, thus founding Karner Blue. We also discuss the extensive research that goes into choosing companies for their Animal Impact Fund portfolio that are truly acting responsibly for animals and the environment. We also discuss how investing in companies that practice compassion for animals and the environment could help us reduce or better control pandemics and diseases like we are facing now with COVID-19. There is a brief timeline of our discussion below the audio at the bottom of this post.
Here is an example of the Animal Impact Fund Fact Sheet. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS FACT SHEET DOES NOT CONTAIN CURRENT INFORMATION. This fact sheet is to only provide an educational glimpse of the fund overview. Karner Blue Capital updates it page and the fund's performance quarterly. Click here for more information: Animal Impact Fund Investing. Ms. Benjamin is also Executive Vice President of the Karner Blue Center for a Humane Economy, Inc. This is the first non-profit animal welfare organization that focuses on influencing the conduct of corporations and encourages them to honor their duties to social responsibility. Some of their current campaigns include: Kangaroos are not shoes, banning of greyhound racing, providing animal care not cruelty, ending torture in testing, and driving global tourism to end cruel spectacles.
Learn more in the episode below. Just press play to begin!
Show Timeline Highlights (shown in minutes into the show):
06:27 Personal animal story
07:33 Discussion of professional history
11:56 Birth of Karner Blue
16:16 Research practices in determining companies for the Animal Impact Fund
29:00 Beginning of discussion on how social responsibility and investing could help prevent disease such as we are facing now with COVID-19.
32:48 Disease outbreaks from mistreatment of animals such as the live wet markets in China where COVID 19 is said to have originated.