Ethics Newsline®

LOS ANGELES
Ethics considerations are becoming increasingly important in investment decisions, according to a variety of recent reports and studies.

In one recent survey, 76 percent of respondents said they would pull their investment money from a company if they learned it was engaged in unethical behavior — even if that behavior were technically legal.

The study, conducted by a group called Opinion Research Corporation, in cooperation with Pepperdine University’s School of Business, also found that investors would yank their funds even if the unethical behavior resulted in a greater return on investment, according to a summary of the study in the newsletter of the Investment Program Association.

Overall, investors continue to show increasing interest in “ethical” and “green” investments, according to an official of the U.K. Social Investment Forum. Adam Ognall, quoted in the official publication of the London Stock Exchange, says the last 18 months have shown “huge growth” in such investment.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the trend toward ethical awareness has had a strong impact on mutual funds, with so-called ethically managed funds outperforming the general market in the past year. The development, according to the Herald report, appears to disprove conventional wisdom.

“There’s been an impression that if you invest ethically you must sacrifice returns, but I think that’s been eroded,” Ross Knowles, founder of the ethical financial planning firm Ethinvest, told the Herald. “Now there’s a belief that you can get market returns and invest ethically.”