Dollars to help make a difference

Superannuation investment management company Australian Ethical selected the 10 grant recipients under its 2023 Visionary Grants program for projects ranging from new clean energy solutions to biodiversity protection.

Established in 1986, Australian Ethical describes itself as one of the pioneers of ethical investing in Australia.

Each year the Australian Ethical Foundation allocates 10% of the company’s post-tax profits to fund initiatives that “drive positive outcomes for the planet, people and animals.”

The foundation has distributed more than $9 million in grants since 2000.

The 2023 Visionary Grants winners are:

• Rewiring Australia, for its project with the Australian National University investigating how a government-supported finance program could help reduce emissions by boosting uptake of electrification in low-income homes.
• Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), which will use the funding to conduct a heat survey to help identify and support 1.8 million low-income households to make the transition to renewable energy.

• Tomorrow Movement, which will use the grant funding to train up to 20 young people from across Australia to run climate-related campaigns in their local communities.

• Environmental Defenders Office, to help fund the ‘Fossil Fuel Tracker’ it developed to monitor fossil fuel projects in the regulatory pipeline. The tool is designed to provide concerned citizens with the legal resources they need to “take effective climate action and protect the places they love.”

• Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council, to support the healthy management of the Martuwarra (Fitzroy) River system in the Kimberly region of Western Australia through a combination of traditional First Nations and Western scientific methods.

• Great Southern Reef Foundation, for its efforts to foster ocean literacy through an interactive digital platform and community engagement guided by scientists and First Nations communities.
• Gudanji for Country, for a project designed to prevent the loss of flora, fauna and Indigenous sacred sites due to climate change and extractive industries such as gas exploration.

• Love Mercy Foundation, to help scale its Cents for Seeds program, designed to combat drought-induced food and water insecurity and reductions in agricultural output and soil quality due to climate change.
• Pollinate Group, which plans to scale its micro-enterprise initiative designed to empower women in margianalised communities in India and Nepal to distribute clean energy products.

• ActionAid Australia, to support a series of Women’s Economic Hubs in Vanuatu designed to empower small-scale female farmers to develop businesses and build resilience to climate-related disasters.