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Socially Responsible Investing: Influencing The World By Investing With Your Values
Cliff Feigenbaum
Since we launched The GreenMoney Journal in 1992, the Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) movement
has become an industry not only in the U.S. but in Europe and the UK as well. With that in mind
we're giving our readers a tour of SRI around the world during this, our 10th anniversary year.
This issue will include two reports, one from Europe and one from the UK, on the positive impacts
of SRI in their respective regions. In our August/September issue we will feature reports from
Asia, Canada and Australia. Because GMJ is committed to covering the world of SRI, these
international reports will become a permanent feature in future issues.
International SRI
includes dozens of screened mutual funds, several new SRI indexes, professional trade associations,
investment research firms, new pension regulations, publications and of course, numerous
conferences.
In truth, covering the international SRI scene leaves us less room to report
on the U.S. in the print version of GMJ. But as we all know, the web is a wonderful backup tool for
information, so we've posted an extra large issue of GreenMoney at - www.greenmoney.com. Take a
look and keep up to date on the world of SRI. By the way, our website will celebrate its seventh
anniversary this summer.
This issue also includes articles on: SRI 2001- from the new $2
trillion Trends Report to mutual funds performance and news, and an important piece on Investing in
Renewable Energy. As mentioned, www.greenmoney.com features more SRI articles and resources from
around the world including one on community investing in New Mexico.
September 11 changed
the world forever. We hope that a government and corporate willingness for open dialogue with all
stakeholders is forthcoming. The work that The GreenMoney Journal and the SRI industry are doing is
more relevant now then ever. GMJ is committed to providing an accurate picture of what is happening
in the world of socially responsible investing and business.
2001 included several
positive notes: Many of the SRI mutual funds returned over 10 percent during 2001 including two
from Ariel and two from Parnassus. In addition to the short-term profitability of SRI, the
long-term success was once again demonstrated by the Domini 400 Social Index. Over the past 10
years, the DSI 400 gained an average of 13.77 percent, compared to 12.95 percent for the S&P 500.
One other strategy of SRI, shareholder activism, had a good year with over 150 resolutions filed.
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