Research Analyst, North America, Domini Social Investments

Research Analyst, North America, Domini Social Investments This is one of the first woman owned and founded socially responsible investment funds. It was founded by Amy Domini in 1990, when as a stockbroker in the 80's, she noticed that there were socially conscious clients like ourselves, that wanted to exclude specific types of companies from their investment portfolios. It took her ten years, but the first indexed stock funds of socially responsible companies was born! For more information on socially responsible investing, check out the Domini website, the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment and Ron Robins at Investing for the Soul. Personally, I have funds invested in a number of socially responsible funds and with the exception of the alternative energy fund, they did much better than the stock market in general last year. I used the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment as a resource.

Green Graduation Gift: Apple iPad and MacBook Pro

Eco-Libris How Green is Your iPad? My son wants a Green Mac laptop to take to college with him, not so sure if I want to purchase one, given Apple's relationships with some questionable suppliers in China. Need to do some more homework on this one. Maybe I will have him do it, since he wants one. The Macbook Pro is pretty green though from an environmental perspective, there was some pressure by Greenpeace to encourage Apple to do the right thing and it apparently worked!

More Banking News: Environmental Risks Getting More Scrutiny in Finance

Though there is a loooong way to go, banks are starting to give greater weight to environmental risks in evaluating credit requests. There has always been a level of scrutiny given to certain environmental risks in real estate lending projects, primarily around the area of potential pollutants specific to the site: asbestos, toxic chemicals and other ground contaminants. In today's environment, with more groups advocating for improved corporate social responsibility, increased sensitivity of consumers to environmentally-correct choices and investors showing greater concerns for the risks inherent in specific environmental practices, banks are slowing realizing that these are issues that need to be considered in weighing the profitability of specific types of financing. Wells Fargo is the most recent U.S. bank to reduce it's exposures to companies engaging in the environmentally damaging practice of mountain top removal of coal. Read here to see if your bank is among the other large financial institutions that have taken this stance.

Banks You Can Really Love: Radical Isn't It?

Usually the words radical and banking aren't used in the same sentence, so as a banker, I was intrigued when I saw this article titled "Are you ready for a radically sustainable bank?" on LinkedIn today. As you can imagine, banking is a pretty conservative profession, so radical is not a concept that would be eagerly greeted in many bank meetings. Things are slowly changing. As bankers start to realize that more customers are concerned about the environment, the local economy and human rights, some banks have begun leading using social consciousness as a driver of profits. These banks focus not only on the bottom line, but the triple bottom line - people, planets and profits. They try to be transparent in their operations, reward clients for shopping consciously and give preferential pricing to businesses that apply eco-conscious supply chain management techniques. Doing good, will beget great results - I can't wait for the IPO!

Socially Responsible Investng Part III: Resources

Apparently, I'm on the right track in the pursuit of financial rewards through the use of a socially responsible investment portfolio. The Appleseed Fund, which I mentioned in part one of the SRI series, was recently highly recommended by Kiplingers, the personal finance magazine, in the article "Planting the Seeds for Big Gains". The fund topped the Midsize Company Value Funds category, not the socially responsible funds category, but head to head against it's non-SRI peers. Anyway, in part three of this series, I have provided a list of websites for you to review to learn more about investment basics as well as SRI and green funds.

1. http://www.socialinvest.org/
2. http://www.socialfunds.com/
3. www.Coopamerica.org/socialinvesting
4. www.care3.com/financial
5. http://www.domini.com/
6. http://www.sristocks.com/
7. www.investingforthesoul.com
8. http://www.greencentury.com/
9. http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/
10. http://www.greenchipstocks.com/
11. http://www.greenmoneyjournal.com/
12. http://www.stockjargon.com/
13. http://www.learninvesting.com/
14. http://www.kiplinger.com/
15. http://www.abcstockinvesting.com/
16. www.blackenterprise.com/wealth-for-life/investing
17. http://www.sharebuilder.com/ (cheap and easy way to purchase individual stocks)

Socially Responsible Investing Part 2 of 3

Okay, I know I was supposed to post this yesterday, but I was too geeked up about helping my friend with his green building project. So today, we will highlight trends in Socially Responsible Investing.

Trends

A rapidly growing number of investors are factoring a company's environmental, safety and corporate governance (ESG) practices into their investment decisions. Some for social reasons, others fear the risks associated with violations, regulation, competition and public relations when companies don't have strong ESG performance. ESG is especially important given the growth of "emerging market" funds. These are funds of businesses operating in high growth developing countries, including China, Brazil, parts of Africa and India There is growing evidence of a positive correlation to financial performance and sensitivity to the triple bottom line over time. Currently there is a push among blocks of investors, for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require its member companies to provide ESG reporting. The most recent data suggests that SRI dollars account for 11 percent of all dollars invested, this represents a growth of 18% from 2005 to 2007. Typical institutional investors include governments, universities, hospitals, foundations and religious organizations that want to align their mission and values with dollars invested. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)represents 300 faith based institutional investors and has over $100 billion in capital in the SRI market.

Financial Performance or "Show Me The Money"

Recent studies have demonstrated the superior performance of SRI funds over non-SRI funds and indexes. According to Social Investment Forum, the oldest SRI index, The Domini 400 earned 8.43% from 1990-2008, compared to the S&P 500, which returned 7.78% over the same period. I am considering investing in The Appleseed Fund, given its 35.21% year to date performance and 12.42% one year return. Another one I'm considering is the Pax World High Yield Bond Fund with year to date returns of 27.42%. There are several other indexes which have outperformed comparable non-SRI indexes in the past decade. The Dow Jones Sustainability Index World is one of these. Wow! So it sounds like you really can have your conscious cake and eat too! All investments have some inherent risks, so be sure to do your homework, understand your comfort level with assuming risk versus return, your time horizon for needing your cash, your goals and review with a certified financial advisor (they should ask you for this information -if they don't- walk away).

Act Now

If you are a member of a credit union or union, donor to or board member of a non-profit or foundation, employee of a large corporation or member of a religious entity you can now ask if your institution has included ESG or SRI requirements into its investment policy (a written internal document that outlines rules, regulations and guidelines for investments) and if not, suggest that they do. If you are an individual investor, you can purchase shares of SRI funds and indexes for as little as $500 (save up monthly until you accumulate this amount or use your tax refund, gift money, etc) or part of a company's stock through Sharebuilder for an even smaller initial investment. There are many investment firms and advisers that specialize in this type of investing, we will touch on these in my final post of this series on socially responsible investing.

For a more detailed report on this topic, click here, there is a lot of good information about guiding your organization's dollars in this direction, in addition to general information on SRI.

Socially Responsible Finance Career Options

While this article was written for finance professionals, the resources provided could benefit many other professions and occupations. In July, I am going to highlight socially responsible investing (SRI), which is the art of putting your money where your values are. You could call it conscious investing. Hot in the world of SRI is community development and sustainability. Excited?! Can't wait that long (because it could be late in July)? Check out the website www.socialinvest.org. It was referred to me by an SVP at UBS, a firm that specializes in SRI (we bankers love our acronyms). It is a great resource for any business, individual or institution valuing the triple bottom line in their investments.