Best Brokers With Sustainable Stocks 2025

Author

Michael MacKenzie

Michael is a UK-based investment writer with over 10 years of experience in the journalism industry. Michael has critically evaluated many of the largest investment brokers in the UK.

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Editor

James Barra

James is a UK-based writer and investor with consultancy experience at some of Britain's largest financial organisations. James authors, edits and fact-checks content for a row of investing websites.

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Fact Checker

Tobias Robinson

Tobias is a UK director and partner at Investing.co.uk. He provides commentary on the financial markets in the UK and supports the testing team with first-hand observations from over two decades of active trading.

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The best brokers offering sustainable stocks allow clients to make investments in environmentally friendly companies. There are many trading products that investors can use, such as individual stocks, ETFs and indices, which track a range of sustainable companies.

Dig into our list of the best brokers for sustainable stock trading – tested by our UK traders.

How Investing.co.uk Chose The Best Brokers Offering Sustainable Stocks

We reviewed brokers that provide access to sustainable and green-focused equities and funds. Our team tested each platform to evaluate ease of use, research tools, and the depth of sustainable investment options.

We then ranked the brokers by overall ratings, combining our hands-on experience with verified data points such as stock coverage, fees, and account features, to highlight the best choices for trading sustainable stocks.

What To Look For In A Sustainable Stock Broker

Just being able to access sustainable stocks isn’t enough – a top ethical broker needs to provide its clients with a well-rounded and feature-rich trading experience. Firms should score well in these criteria:

Trust

The most important aspect of any broker is its reliability – put simply, you should never risk handing your hard-earned cash over to a broker unless it has proven credentials as a trusted firm.

Regulation by a top body like the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the best sign of a reliable firm, as brokers need to meet stringent requirements and to regularly submit financial reports to obtain and maintain a license.

Besides this, the FCA’s rules ensure that UK clients of licensed brokers are covered by safeguards including:

• Negative balance protection, which prevents traders from becoming indebted to their brokers due to losing trades.
• Segregated client funds, meaning that customers’ money is held in separate accounts to business funds.
• Insurance up to a total of £85,000 per customer against business insolvency under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Platforms & Apps

The platform and trading app is the program or software on which you will spend most of your time completing any analysis, researching potential assets to find entry positions, and monitoring and executing trades.

For this, you will want to choose a broker that offers high-quality platforms such as MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, and newer options like TradingView. These platforms come with a range of in-built indicators, tools and chart customisation options, useful for conducting analysis.

Alternatively, some brokers offer proprietary platforms with excellent tools for traders to pick and trade sustainable instruments.

eToro prominently displays ESG scores of companies such as Apple, displayed

Fees

When comparing brokers with sustainable stocks, you should look at how their fee structure will work alongside your trading strategy.

Brokers typically charge their clients in one of two ways: either through commission-free trading (whereby the bid-ask spreads are likely to be wider) or via a percentage charge on each trade.

So, for example, if you are looking to capitalise on small changes in an asset’s value using scalping techniques, you may need to find a broker offering tight spreads.

Other potential fees include deposit and withdrawal charges, inactivity fees, swap rates on overnight positions and any premiums for accessing certain features or services.

Payment Methods

Compare the payment methods they offer. For this, consider the time taken for funds to clear, any fees that are charged and the minimum or maximum limits.

Often, many brokers support bank transfers and credit/debit cards. Certain brokerages such as CMC Markets and Pepperstone also support e-wallet transfers including PayPal, which are usually processed instantly.

What Are Sustainable Stocks?

Sustainable stock trading involves investing in shares of environmentally friendly and socially conscious companies. Examples include SSE, First Solar and ITM Power, which are active in the renewables energy sector and generate power from solar, wind and hydrogen.

Another option is to invest in companies that manufacture vehicles that run on alternative fuels. One example is BYD, which manufactures electric buses used in UK cities such as London and Coventry in partnership with Alexander Dennis Limited.

Another even more popular example is the electric carmaker Tesla which, at the time of writing, has the greatest market cap of all manufacturers.

These are all companies that aim to make a positive impact through their services and products while also successfully generating revenue.

Why Trade Sustainable Stocks?

Brokers with sustainable stocks allow clients to invest in companies whose ethics are aligned with their own.

Additionally, it provides an avenue for investors to speculate on companies that could see growth in the future as the UK introduces initiatives to become more environmentally friendly.

For instance, the UK government has laid out objectives that say the country must become greener in the future. Examples include the commitment to being carbon neutral by 2050 and the prohibition of the sale of petrol and diesel-fuelled cars from 2030 onwards.

Tips

Diversification

One way to approach it is through diversified trading with products such as ETFs and mutual funds. The iShares Green Bond ETF, for example, only has holdings that meet certain standards relating to sustainability.

These diversified products allow clients to spread their investments out amongst several sustainable stocks, thus reducing risk exposure. Consider, for instance, that you were to only invest in two stocks, and both see a large downward swing in price. Your portfolio will suffer greatly as a result.

However, if instead you invest in 20 stocks and two of them drop in value, your overall portfolio will not be as greatly impacted. It is also possible that the decline in value is offset by growth from some of the other holdings.

Start Small

One of the key reasons for investing in sustainable stocks is so traders can capitalise on the potential increase in their value in the future. As countries develop more sustainably to meet objectives set out in global initiatives, many companies could grow as a result.

However, a downside to investing in smaller-cap companies is that there may be less liquidity, widening the bid-ask spreads and making them less suitable for short-term trading. Therefore, these smaller stocks may be better suited to investors with a long-term view.

Run Analysis

To identify which stocks to trade at online brokers and when you should enter and exit your position, you can use technical analysis. While it may be important to invest in companies that are aligned with your values, you still want to choose stocks that have growth or dividend potential.

So, if you are spot trading, you will want to find stocks that are likely to increase in value over time. If you are trading derivatives, you can capitalise on both bullish and bearish trends. In both instances, you need to be able to identify these trends over given time frames by completing analysis using tools like technical indicators.

Follow The News

Stay up to date on news and announcements surrounding sustainable stocks. For example, if a company announces a new product or project, then its valuation can change.

Also, look to see which companies are given government contracts where they are tasked with a new project. For example, developing a new wind farm or manufacturing sustainable trains and buses for public transport routes.

To help stay informed, you can also subscribe to news publications such as ESG News and Green Stock News, which offer real-time updates and global market data. You can also follow experts and analysts on social media.

Risk Management

All trading carries a degree of risk, even when investing in diversified products such as ETFs. For this reason, adopt risk management techniques to help reduce your risk exposure.

Examples of measures include using take profit and stop loss orders. These two triggers will automatically close your position once the asset reaches a certain price, to either secure profit from a winning position or limit your total losses.

UK Tax Considerations

When trading sustainable stocks, you will need to consider your tax obligations. In the UK, revenue from online investing is often classified as capital gains, which is treated separately from normal income tax. It is important to note that you are only taxed on the profits you make from trading, not the overall returns.

Helpfully, some of the best brokers provide a document reviewing your trades over the tax year. These reports will detail the profits from each trade and the exit date and time, making it easier to submit your tax return.

Bottom Line

The top brokers for sustainable stocks offer trading and investment opportunities in companies with green credentials. This can be through direct share dealing, ETFs, or indices.

Importantly, compare the fees charged, UK regulatory oversight, the reliability of the platform and app, plus additional tools and insights into specific companies and sectors, such as renewable energy.

To get started, head to our ranking of the best brokers with sustainable stocks.

FAQ

How Can I Find Sustainable Stocks To Invest In?

To find sustainable stocks, you can use trackers such as the Dow Jones STOXX Sustainability Index. This index focuses on European-based companies that meet certain criteria regarding their environmental and social impact, as well as how they are governed.

Alternatively, many top-rated brokers for sustainable stock trading offer stock screeners and list companies by various ESG metrics.

How Do I Determine How Sustainable A Company Is?

One of the main methods to determine the sustainability of a company is through its ESG (environment, social and governance) rating. This rating evaluates a company’s operations according to a set of criteria by reviewing publicly available information.

This typically includes annual reports and data such as carbon emissions. The rating providers then collect all the information together to categorise each company they review.

For example, Sustainalytics, one of the main providers of ESG ratings, uses a 0 to 40+ scale to rate each company.