ethical investments

Lansdowne

as for me, I started investing in ethical funds a few months ago when savings rates started going down & down.
Some are up over 20% in three months, though I expect that is mainly due to the exchange rate as they are the worldwide ones. But in general the ethical funds perform as well as their sectors, over a period of time.

Blah99

Not me. I'm actually going to put more cash into BAE and BAT - I felt I needed to invest in some very unethical companies to make sure someone balances out against all you ethical people

ahai1

Not all offer bad deals for example I have the Charity Bank ISA which is 4.5% but it is a 30 day notice account.

BTW would it be possible for someone to provide a list of some sorts for ethical savings and investments?

springer712

A list would be a tall order as it depends entirely on what kind of ethical investment you want to make.
There's a large group of 'light green' funds which essentially refuse to have anything to do with sectors like the arms industry, the tobacco industry etc. 'Dark green' funds on the other hand are much more proactive in their stance, only investing in things like renewables.
there are also certain banks like the Coop and Triodos with 100% ethical savings accounts.....
here's a good place to start if you're new to the subject:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/may/21/ethicalmoney.investmentfunds
alternatively you could ask Blah99 for advice and then do exactly the opposite!;)

ahai1

The good start with the links would be the things that have been discussed for example the excellant charity bank ISA can be found at http://www.charitybank.org The Catholic Bulding Society had some charity accounts I took the railway children one out but there does not appear to be any information on it since the merger that I can find.

ahai1

I had a good look at the Triodos bank website at: http://www.triodos.co.uk and I am not still sure about a few things. The returns as suggested by the Guardian article are good but not the best. That is not what I am confused about. I am confused about what organisations the money goes to it has got things like accounts for Amnesty but where does the money that it get's in savings goes to?

Lansdowne

http://www.trustnet.com/Education/EthicalInvest.aspx

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/ethicalmoney

http://www.fairinvestment.co.uk/investing_in_ethical_funds.aspx

http://www.h-l.co.uk/funds/Ethical-funds

ahai1

Thanks that is heavy reading I will look at it when I have time.

BTW does anyone know what happened to the charity accounts from the Catholic Building Society?

orangeslimes

ahai1 wrote: »

I had a good look at the Triodos bank website at: http://www.triodos.co.uk and I am not still sure about a few things. The returns as suggested by the Guardian article are good but not the best. That is not what I am confused about. I am confused about what organisations the money goes to it has got things like accounts for Amnesty but where does the money that it get's in savings goes to?

Triodos only invest all their money in ethical green companies/projects etc - I think Cafe Direct is one and things like small renewable energy projects or community ones or organic farms etc. I am sure there is more info on the website.
So yeh it is quite different to other banks who have investments in who knows where... It's not the same as just part of your interest going to charity which is how some of these charity accounts work.

ahai1

How big a bank are they?