What actually is Socially Responsible Investment (SRI)?
According to the ClearlySo glossary, SRI is;‘a type of investment that is made according to social, evironmental and ethical criteria as well as conventional financial criteria. The criteria varies according to the preferences and strategies of the SRI fund or individual investor.’This is now a booming area of the financial services industry; figures from the Investment Management Association (IMA) show that, at the end of Q3 2007, there was £5.8 billion invested in ethical funds, a figure 35% larger than that for Q3 2006. Critics of SRI point out that SRI does not necessarily mean giving equal importance to SEE and financial criteria. Nor does it necessarily mean an investment with a social return. It can just mean investment in companies that are less socially irresponsible than others in its industry and of a comparable size. The SRI industry is at an early stage of development and at present some of the funds available to retail investors appear to be mainstream funds with a ‘green
