Socially Responsible Investing

Socially Responsible Investing Links for You!

SRI could be described as an attempt to change the world via economics. Usually SRI means that the investor avoids putting money into corporations which produce social undesirables (alcohol, tobacco, firearms, etc.), belong to problematic industries (defense, nuclear, etc.), or engage in poor behavior (environmental degradation, war profiteering, discrimination in management, etc.). This way the investor does not profit from social ills, and does not give such corporations the benefit of her/his investment dollars. Note that the definition of social ills depends on the investor; there are faith-based SR investors as well as both liberal and conservative SR investors. A more positive spin on SRI would have investors choosing to invest only into corporations which effect social good with their products and/or behavior... unfortunately, too few companies are completely good (by almost anyone's definition) to make this a realistic investment strategy. We're still in the do-as-little-harm-as-possible world.
SRI can also refer to shareholder activism, in which one hopes to promote positive corporate behavior by investing in a company and then voting one's shares with a social/political agenda. Shareholder activism is practiced both with poorly-behaving and with well-behaving companies.

introductory SRI articles

More-than-a-decade-old four-part series of blog posts that give an excellent overview of socially responsible investing. (Lots of links are broken, but there doesn't seem to be a comparable more-recent overview available.)
Basics of Socially Responsible Investing from Domini
The Forum For Sustainable and Responsible Investment's SRI basics
Forbes intro to SRI
American Association of Individual Investors study of SRI performance (includes interesting details on types of SRI investments)

other relevant sites

Studies of Socially Responsible Investing which is no longer updated
MSCI creates SR indices
Clean Edge seems to be all about alternative-energy-related stocks/companies
Michael Bluejay's List of Socially Responsible Stocks
GreenMoney e-Journal
Sustainable Business.com
Green America: Economic Action for a Just Planet
A different kind of SRI...Alternative Gifts International Catalog

There are reasons I don't list Business for Social Responsibility here. (Every few years a new similar critique pops up.)