Summer Series – Can Our Savings Protect Human Rights and the Planet?

It's summertime in Sweden and Canada. The Filmmaker and the Advocate are taking a break, but the podcast isn't.  For five weeks, Fredrik and Leilani bring their faithful fans and new listeners the PushBack Talks - Summer Series.  These are curated podcasts from Season 2 - episodes you may have missed that are definitely worth a listen. We've pared them down,  and updated each with recent news and a few personal reflections. So, whether you're stuck at home, or chilling on a beach - we hope you enjoy our Summer Series! Most of us put our savings in a bank. But what does the bank do with our money? What if you learned that your life savings were being invested in companies that are burning down the Amazon forest or raising rents and evicting tenants from their homes? Would you care? Would you be willing to do something about it? This week the Filmmaker and the Advocate talk with Jakob König the Project Leader of the Fair Finance Guide - Sweden, an organization that exposes the role the finance sector plays in harming our planet and undermining human rights. Using a set of international standards, Fair Finance Guide investigates the investment activities of financial institutions like banks. If they don’t receive a passing grade, they inform the clients of the bank to provoke outrage and action. The results have been impressive. Under pressure from 5,000 clients, Swedish banks met with the government of Brazil and halted the burning of the Amazon forest for several months. So maybe we have more power than we think!   Fredrik and Leilani see great potential in the model and wonder if it couldn’t be used to hold institutional investors in housing to account. And, if banks can be shamed into changing what  they invest in, might they also be persuaded to change their lending practices – where so much of the real damage is done?Produced by WG Film Recorded & Edited by Mikey JonesMusic by Florencia Di ConcilioSocial Media & Support - Maja MobergSupport the show