选择伦理投资并不是意味着你必须放弃多样化的投资组合。环保不仅仅是可循环能源以及咖啡的公平贸易。自从全球经济衰退以来，投资者主要关心现金的保值以及可以带来收益的股票。很多人非常愿意成为伦理投资者，但是他们中存在的常见误解是：为了支持绿色产业，他们必须放弃盈利的稳定性。
事实远非如此。伦理投资是一个比很多人想象大得多的投资领域。传统的伦理投资——指的是“深黑色”，确实对投资途径有很多限制，筛选掉了那些“不道德”的产业，比如烟酒，动物实验，石油以及武器装备公司。
那些不支持与降低二氧化碳有关的某些工厂货制造业的零售商是不达标的。最古老的伦理基金（F&C 基金管理）甚至拒绝投资金融公司，因为金融公司基本不会对环境以及社会产生任何影响。
但是“浅绿色”基金——或者社会责任投资(SRI)——仅仅投资那些产业领域里最好的、比同行更负有伦理责任的公司。许多SRI在墨西哥湾石油泄漏之前甚至持有英国石油公司（BP）股票，因为它作为能源巨头，相对于同行，采用了一种对社会更加负责的操作方式。
尽管这两种基金都自己描述为“伦理”投资基金，但是也都会投资那些与生态产业不相关的领域——比如英国标准人寿道德基金投资沃达丰(VOD)、巴克莱(BARC)和在线零售商Asos。
这意味着，建立一个稳定的，多元化的伦理投资组合是很有可能的。伦理投资者选择基金公司时，可以选择那些得益于减少生态足迹或者致力于减少生态足迹的公司，比如Impax环境市场或者木星生态基金。Impax基金经理Hubert Aarts说，“伦理投资不会阻碍投资组合的成功，事实上，它可以保护投资者免受未来的亏损”、“经营良好的公司，致力于强大的稳定性以及良好的管理，大多数都会有优越的长期表现。英国银行的管理不善让我们痛苦地意识到它们长期的负面影响。公司对管理的疏忽是另外一层风险。”
Aarts也认为，伦理投资也符合全球对强大的、长期的风险调整收益率推动力。“世界人口正在迅速增长，”他说。“我们看到了发展中国家的强大的资金产生能力以及相继的消费改变。将来，我们将会不可避免地生活在水资源短缺地区，水资源短缺将会随着农业的改变、极端气候的增加或者长期气候的改变而加剧。”
与此相关的市场领域的增长速度比其他领域增速快得多，并且需求持续上升。那些忽略这些基本的经济推动力将会错过巨大的获利空间，因为它们未来十年的投资前景将会超过整体经济并且与长期的伦理投资的利益一致。
What is Ethical Investing?
Choosing to invest ethically does not mean you have to say goodbye to a diversified portfolio. Going green equals more than just renewable energy and fair trade coffee
Read more on ethical and sustainable investing in Morningstar's Ethical Investing Week 2013.
Since the global recession investors have – rightly so – been concerned primarily with cash preservation and income paying stocks. While many would like to think of themselves as ethical investors, the common misconception is they would have to do-away with stability in order to support green industry.
But this is not the case. Ethical investing is a considerably broader sector than many imagine. Traditional ethical funds – referred to as “dark green”, do take a very restrictive approach to investing, screening out stocks that are involved in “unethical” industries such as alcohol, animal testing, tobacco, oil and armament firms.
Retailers that do not uphold certain factory conditions or manufacturing companies that do not comply with reduced carbon initiatives also fail to make the grade. The oldest ethical fund F&C Stewardship even originally refused to invest in financial companies because their practices included little consideration of environmental and social impacts.
But light green funds – or socially responsible investment (SRI) – simply invest in best of class, companies across all industries who are more ethically responsible than their peers. Many SRI funds even held BP (BP.) before the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, as the energy giant operated in a more socially responsible way than its peers.
While both these funds would describe themselves as “ethical” they will contain companies that investors would not associate with ecological industries – such as the Standard Life UK Ethical fund which invests in Vodafone (VOD), Barclays (BARC) and online retailer Asos (ASC).
This means it is possible to build a stable, well diversified portfolio while investing ethically.
Investors who which to take the remit further can do – some funds only invest in companies that benefit from or are engaged in the reduction of climate change. Investors looking for more concentrated exposure to green industry should consider a targeted ethical fund such Impax Environmental Markets (IEM) or Jupiter Ecology ( Bronze rated). Impax fund manager Hubert Aarts says that far from hindering a portfolio’s success, ethical screening actually protects investors from future losses.
“Well managed companies, committed to strong sustainability and good governance, generally demonstrate superior long term performance. We are all painfully aware of the result of years of poor governance within the UK banks and the far reaching impact this continues to have. The omission of companies that don’t deliver on these practices is simply another layer of risk reduction,” he said.
Aarts also believes that ethical investment is in tune with global drivers for strong long term risk-adjusted returns.
“The world population is growing rapidly,” he said. “We are seeing massive wealth creation in developing countries and subsequent changes in consumption. In future more of us will inevitably live in water stressed areas and water shortages will be further exacerbated by changes in agriculture and an increase in extreme weather patterns and possibly longer term climate change.”
Markets associated with this movement are growing considerably faster than most other sectors, and demand continues to rise.
He continued: “Investors who ignore these fundamental economic drivers could miss out on an enormous opportunity for value creation. The prospect that these markets will outperform the wider economy over the next decade, and beyond, resonates strongly with a broad-based interest in long-term ethical investing.”
本文翻译由兄弟财经提供，文章来源：http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/news/112780/what-is-ethical-investing.aspx