I noticed this item in the news, and it's good to see that investing with your consicous mind can sometimes, if not always, improve your investment returns, and more specifically related to this story, your risk-adjusted return.
Equity mutual funds that incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) analysis are outperforming their more traditional peers, according to analysis by Trucost and RLP Capital.
Seven out of eight responsibly-managed mutual funds have “significantly higher alpha” over three years, according to the analysis, meaning risk-adjusted performance is better than the traditionally managed funds.
London-based environmental research firm Trucost and independent wealth management firm RLP compared the eight largest US traditional mutual funds, by asset size, with the eight largest US responsible funds.
“This study demonstrates that ESG analysis can provide investors with better risk-adjusted performance. The alpha performance rank data for the responsible funds in this study are hard to ignore,” said Bud Sturmack, managing director of independent wealth management firm RLP.
The report does not put a dollar value on the outperformance between the two groups, instead breaking this down by the asset class in which the funds invest.
Comparing the four traditional and four responsible funds that invest in a blend of large capitalisation companies, the responsible group were down on average 6.88% over three years, compared to a 9.66% drop in the traditional group. Over a five-year period, total returns were up 1.24%, while the traditional funds were up 0.10%.Full online article comparing returns of green mutual funds to regular mutual funds Green Energy Investing Links:Best Wind Energy stocks to WATCHTop,Green Mutual Funds Ethical Investments website BlogWindIntell.com Publicly-traded Wind Power CompaniesSolarIntell.com Solar Energy Stocks, Green Power InvestingGeothermal Power Stocks Investments Companies listWater Intell: Wavepower Tidal Energy Water Purification websiteGreen Energy Companies Websites LinksPVintell.com Solar Photovoltaic Power Stocks links