LMoney is insomniac. Unless hidden under the mattress or in a safe, savings never sleep. Deposited in a bank or with an insurer, it is used to finance businesses, communities, individuals, etc. Even if you only have a current account.
“So saving is power, no matter the size of your portfolio”asserts Antoine Labarre, operational director of Rift, an application which offers “scan the societal and environmental impact” investments. Power of which few are aware, deplores Grégoire Cousté, general delegate of the Forum for Responsible Investment: “It is certainly easier to choose a packet of coffee than an investment, but you must understand that you can act with your savings as well as with your consumption. »
For Mathieu, the turning point dates back to 2004. During a humanitarian mission, he became aware of environmental issues. “So I tried to take action. I changed jobs to become CSR director [responsabilité sociétale des entreprises]I do almost all my shopping in organic stores, I limit meat and I wondered what my money was doing in the bank,” says this 47-year-old Parisian. Since 2015, he has mainly invested in renewable energies, on the crowdfunding platform Lendosphere. “I devote a significant part of my savings to it, I contribute to twenty-three projects, mainly solar. »
A global approach also demonstrated by Cécile, 45 years old. It also shows itself to be very scrupulous in its way of consuming – direct purchases from producers, choice of energy supplier, circular economy, etc. “And in 2012, I left Crédit Agricole for Macif, then Crédit Coopératif”relates this Toulouse woman.
“The most important thing for me was the current account, I had little assets. My priorities were to no longer finance polluting industries, arms and the industries of non-democratic countries”she said, however deploring the“opacity” of the financial sector and the difficulty of knowing how the money is used. She says she is proud to contribute to the fight against poor housing by being one of the 660 shareholders of Solifap, a social and solidarity economy company created by the Abbé Pierre Foundation. She invested 2,000 euros, received as an inheritance in 2017.
“Lack of knowledge about sustainable finance”
But Mathieu and Cécile are not classic savers. “If more and more French people aspire to align the use of their money with their concerns as citizens, they do so especially in terms of consumption, travel, and still little for banking, whereas this is where the impact is the strongest”, notes the sociologist Arnaud Zegierman, who deciphers the French relationship with money in the Observatories of the meaning of moneywhich Viavoice, the survey institute he directs, has been carrying out since 2019 for Crédit Coopératif. “Do my little daily efforts make sense if my bank invests in fossil energy? »
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