This is the first in a short series of three blog posts exploring how ethical concern is evolving and what that means for how people think about money.
At the Mindful Money Awards in June 2025, when I was announced as Ethical Financial Adviser of the Year, I made an off-script comment in my acceptance speech. I said that many of the people I work with care deeply about showing up on climate change, but they are also tired. Not tired of caring, but tired of being told that individual effort can somehow outweigh what is happening at a global political level.
When the biggest emitters are the United States, China and Russia, and cooperation shifts with political cycles, it is hard not to feel that the biggest levers are well out of reach. You can do the right things in your own life and still feel that the outcome is being shaped elsewhere.
That comment was about saying something out loud that many thoughtful people already feel. There is only so much responsibility one person can reasonably carry for problems that are structural and political.
What I have noticed over the past couple of years is not people switching off. It is people redirecting their concern. Climate still matters, but it is no longer the only place where ethical unease sits.
People talk to me about water quality and whether they would drink from the tap without thinking twice. They talk about rivers they once swam in and now avoid. They talk about native bush being protected through long-term community effort rather than token gestures. They talk about places like Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari, where ancient forest is being restored and protected behind a predator-proof fence, and where buying nature credits funds ongoing care rather than a one-off offset. That kind of stewardship feels real and close to home.
These concerns land differently because they are tangible. They connect to everyday life and to decisions made by companies and communities, not just individuals.
This shift does not mean caring less. It means widening the lens. Ethical concern is becoming less about a single global outcome and more about how power is used, how money is made, and who lives with the consequences.
In the next post, I will explore another thread that has become much more prominent over the past year: discomfort with how standards of behaviour at the top are being talked about.
