Financial Gain, Social Loss, or what?

[AdamH]

I am one of those fortunate people who has managed to repay various debts, and after a full year of being in and out of my Overdraft protection I'm finally ready to save some cashola. trouble is, where to put it?

While there's a whole host of the conventional options (savings accounts, RRSPs, GIC, etc) I thought some folks might be interested in Socially Responsible Invsting. If you want to live a life that is socially, ecologically and fundamnetally sustainable this should include supporting initiatives that carry the same values. If your consumption habits are aimed at being sustainable, so should your investment strategy.

There's a portion in "The Corporation" where a Stock trader discusses the economic impact of septmber 11th, which much to my surprise was overwhelmingly positive: the price of gold, the price of oil, the stock price of major blue chips...all increased as a result of the tragedy. I guess that's what got me thinking a bit about picking investments that reflect my own values: investing in companies that are at least attempting to improve themselves.

If anyone is already doing so I'd love to hear about it, and in particular which type of funds or investments you've been considering. There are many dimensions that surround Corporate Social Responsibility, but in my mind I'm willing to look past some of the "conspiracy theorist" explanations of CSR and consider whether there is an actual change taking place.

Also, here is a website that discusses this in detail and gives some practical advice:

http://www.socialinvestment.ca/index.htm

[dave-O]

Quality post.

I'm curious if these socially responsible funds have the same RRSP eligibility as typical mutual funds. I know about the labour sponsored funds (and have heard mixed reviews about them), but what about the rest?

The truth is, the purpose for the majority of my investing is to ease the tax burden of today. I'd definitely be willing to sacrifice some future earnings (I mean how much interest do Trimark, etc. really make these days?) for investing in respectable companies. But I've yet to hear any convincing evidence that these SIO funds are that much better than the status quo.

[Large Marge]

Good on both of you for thinking about this issue at all. It's so easy to keep our hands clean, when all we're doing is hitting the "equity order" button from the comfort of our home or office.

Here is a recent article on SRI, with some valuable links as well:

http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature3.cfm?REF=463

This is a relatively new school of thought - not to be confused with "Ethical Funds", or similar such bullshit left over from the last millennium. I just saw 'The Corporation' as well and am feeling a bit more optimistic about our chances of taking down "the Man".

Please let me know if your research leads you anywhere that I aught to be.

Cheers!

[thomson]

You'll definitely want to clarify how they are defining "ethical" or "socially responsible". And more importantly, ask about WHO is doing the research on the companies.

Some larger Credit Unions give free seminars on this stuff.

[kung]

Adam I just met with the co-executive director of La Siembra co-operative in Ottawa. They make quite good fair trade chocolate, organic hot chocolate, organic cocoa and sugar and are just going into Loblaws. They've experienced %426 growth in the last year and have an interesting offering statement to buy into the co-op. It's a limited fixed rate of return based on redistributed surplus profit in the form of divideneds. Anyways it'd be interesting to see what the rates of return compared to social funds for instance. Just thought you'd find this Otown example interesting in the least. I was thoroughly impressed with their social consciences and level of capitalization.