Rob Robbins, founder of ‘Investing for the Soul,’ a US-based online “ethical investment” magazine, insists ethical investments can outperform their mainstream rivals. Ethical or socially responsible investment is an investment strategy that seeks to maximize both financial return an social good. According to Mr Robbins, “Most studies of ethical or socially responsible investment funds find that their performance is roughly similar or sometimes higher than returns from conventional investments.” Mr Robbins cites figures from the US-based nonprofit Social Investment Forum, which show that, in 2009, the majority of the 160 “socially responsible funds” included in the forum outperformed their benchmarks thus, he argues, “As investors realize that they can apply their ethical and socially responsible values to investing and make similar or potentially better returns compared to conventional portfolios, investors everywhere will eventually favor ethical/SR oriented funds and investments.”

By Conner Brannen, Research Assistant

Sources and Additional Resources:

Fairinvestment.co.uk: “Ethical Investment: Can it outperform other funds?” July 21, 2010: http://www.fairinvestment.co.uk/News/investment-news-Ethical-investment:-Can-it-outperform-other-funds?-18471082.html

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