Green Investments

In the 1990s there was a focus on Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) -- where fund managers actively pursued "virtuous" companies to offer their clients (rather than merely avoiding gambling, weaponry and pornography stocks). According to CNBC European Business magazine's article "Greed is Good" (by Richard Lofthouse and Ticia Holly Davis), 2008 has seen the launch of "green funds" -- an area set of explode over the next decade. The article uses data from the Climate Change Investment Guide by Holden and Partners, to identify a number of SRI funds with Environmental Holdings. One of the outcomes of this emphasis has been the Carbon Disclosure Project -- a global movement that uses shareholder pressure to solicit carbon footprint reporting from large companies. It is useful to see that reducing the carbon footprint may no longer be undertaken merely through an ethical concern or the need to mitigate climate change -- but by the increasing goverment support and consumer demand for lower-carbon emissions -- with companies that are changing their business models to achieve this getting a greater number of investors. Interesting how markets can influence the improvement of the planet!