Socially Responsible Investment: How ya gonna do it?
When Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) started more than 20 years ago, it was a different animal. Anti-this and anti-that, people used what was known as negative filters to keep money away from companies they didn't support. In that way, we felt protected and we showed people what we did support - issues like no-nukes, anti-tobacco, stopping Apartheid. But the corporations were smarter. They bought up companies demonstrating our values and then we were stuck not contributing to anything and losing money. People who didn't have a SRI investment strategy were making a killing in the markets; the rest of us were SOL.
A couple of decades later and all this has gotten more complicated. On top of that, more people want to do it but they can't get access to products or funds that perform like their old stock portfolios AND they can't get investment brokers to buy in and offer up the little that's there. Using the old system of metrics, SRI stocks still look risky and even when they're performing well, they don't measure like the huge funds that can cover over loss and slide things around to make it look like stocks are climbing or are a 'buy', even when they're not. So how do people understand and access SRI in an age of financial market collapse and cover-ups?
This Sunday on So Fine Canada, listen in for interviews with Hugh Wheelan , Managing Editor of Responsible-investor.com talking about how his site is used by Impact Investors (large dollar operators like pension funds and high net worth individuals) and small time folks to get information on issues, new attitudes and world actions. Think China doesn't care about the environment? Time to test your assumption.
Also coming on the show will be Eugene Ellmen of Canada's, Social Investment Organization. They are a trade association for financial professionals who do support SRI and maintain a commitment to environmental, social and governance (esg) principles in their work. These are the people that you want to work with if you are putting your money behind SRI.
If SRI is new to you, then this show will be a good primer and for those of us ol' souls who showed up with the negative filters long ago, we need to move forward. Take an hour to start moving. So Fine Canada Sundays at 10 am Pacific and 1 pm EST.
