Your Money Is Building Something: Sustainable Investing Isn’t Soft | Ep. 83 w/ Pete Krull

Investing is not neutral. Your money is not sitting in some ethical waiting room. It is building something, financing something, and rewarding something. Whether you meant to or not, your portfolio may be voting for yesterday, today, or tomorrow. In this episode of Is Anything Real?, Adam W. Barney sits down with Pete Krull, longtime sustainable investing advisor and founder of Earth Equity Advisors, for a conversation about sustainable investing, legacy industries, greenwashing, long-term thinking, representation in finance, and why “safe” investing is often just nostalgia with better packaging. Pete has spent more than 22 years in what he once called **counterculture Wall Street:** helping people invest not in the economy of yesterday, but in the cleaner, more resilient, more resource-efficient, and more equitable economy of tomorrow. This conversation challenges the idea that sustainable investing is soft, niche, political, or simply values theater. Because every investment strategy has a worldview baked into it. The question is whether that worldview is honest about where the economy is actually going. Adam and Pete unpack why traditional finance often gets to hide its assumptions behind the word “normal,” why broad market indexes can reflect yesterday’s economy, and why future readiness matters more than nostalgia. They also get personal: inherited money, inherited worldviews, fossil fuels, circular economies, generational change, and what happens when you start asking what your money is actually building. Pete also shares practical questions investors can ask, including how to look beyond fund labels, why greenwashing requires better receipts, and how to start with one account instead of trying to overhaul an entire financial life in one weekend. NOTE: This episode is educational and not financial advice. Talk with a qualified financial professional before making investment decisions. In this episode: - Why investing is not neutral - Why your money is already making a statement - Why sustainable investing is not just values theater - How legacy industries shape the investing conversation - Why indexes can reflect yesterday’s economy - Why future readiness matters in portfolio thinking - What greenwashing gets wrong - Why the answer to greenwashing is better receipts, not cynicism - How inherited money can carry inherited worldview - Why circular economies matter - Why finance still has a representation problem - How to run the “Money Is Building Something” audit - What questions to ask a financial professional The big takeaway: **Your money is building something.** The only question is whether you know what it is building...and whether that still matches the future you say you believe in. Guest: **Pete Krull** Founder, Earth Equity Advisors Sustainable Investing Advisor Earth Equity Advisors: https://www.earthequityadvisors.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pkrull/ Email: [pete@earthequityadvisors.com](mailto:pete@earthequityadvisors.com) Host: **Adam W. Barney** Transition Leadership Coach Author of *Make Your Own Glass Half Full* Creator of EnergyOS 👉 Book your 20-min Exploration Call: https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/explorationplugin-20min Subscribe to *Is Anything Real?*: https://isanythingreal.adamwbarney.com/