Green Options

Even a year gone since the failure of Lehman, fundamental questions remain regarding the core underlying assumptions of our financial system. Though currently derivatives trading and black boxes appear out of favour, what will replace them in terms of helpful and productive uses of capital still has yet to be determined. This question was what the Conference on Social Capital Market’s, or SoCap09 tried to give some structure to; while the trend towards sustainable investments and long-term ROI seems to have taken the place of actively managed funds seeking 20x returns.

What if you call your HR department or brokerage firm and discover you don’t have SRI options available with your 401(k)?  Does that mean you can’t be a socially responsible investor?  Of course not.  If you own shares in a company, you have partial ownership and certain privileges.  Corporations mail out their annual reports containing proxy statements and voting forms.  With our votes, we have the ability to help shape sustainable business in corporate America.  We can be shareholder advocates.

When you disagree with a company’s sustainable or lack of sustainable business practices, what do you do?  You contact the company.  You sign a petition.  You boycott their products.  You inspired others to “vote with their feet” or “vote with their dollars.”  You pride yourself in the fact that you don’t shop at Walmart or eat at McDonalds.  You are using your “consumer dollars” to send a strong message to corporate America, but what about your “investing dollars”?  When it comes to 401(k)s, mutual funds and the stock market, do you know where your money goes?

A bridge is about to open up that will make things easier but safer for people who want make their investments consistent with their values.

Just like a bridge makes traveling between two islands easier, the new rating system to be unveiled at Socap09 will be like taking a train instead of having to paddle through choppy waters.

The bridge, called GIIRS, is being built for people who are trying to make sure their investments have a positive social and environmental impact while they also try to earn a financial return. It’s a tool that makes it easier, safer and clearer for those investors who want to make a difference.

Here are my own personal steps to becoming a “green being”:

1} Try to stop driving exclusively gasoline powered automobiles. Carpool at least
once a week. Ride Public Transportation when you can and encourage Public Transit to
utilize/purchase alternative fuel buses (bio-deisel, natural gas, electric, etc.)

As stimulus funding leads some industry insiders to think of Washington as “the new Wall Street” for green energy, some investment experts say they’re concerned about the government’s new role. “I worry about the government as a dealmaker in this space,” said Tom Bratkovitch, director of LP Capital Advisors, a consulting firm for private-equity investors, at a Thomson Reuters conference in Palo Alto, Calif., this week. “I just don’t know if the government is the best one to make decisions in this space.”

After all, the federal government has supported some technologies that have not panned out, while missing some that have ultimately been successful. The government also has a reputation for moving slowly – though the Department of Energy certainly is trying hard to get stimulus money out as quickly as possible – and the applications for the grants and loan guarantees can be extremely time-consuming.

At a cleantech panel about business opportunities running up to the 2012 Olympics in London, Dallas Kachan, managing director for the Cleantech Group, said that the second quarter “looks a lot like the first quarter” for cleantech investing so far.

In other words, it’s still down from last year, but deals are still happening and money is still available, he said. “The amount of investment is not continuing to plummet; it’s stable,” Kachan said. “Some might say we’ve reached bottom.”

Market Facilitation in Ecosystem Services; Contemporary Developing Cases in the UK

Is there reason to believe that there maybe profit to be made by investing in eco investments while conserving the environment?

There does exist some scepticism about the market’s involvement in green initiatives. Even though research conducted by Frost & Sullivan about the telecom industry, which is yet to be published, next month (but was mentioned in The Guardian in late April) apparently shows that there is no measurable link between a company’s share price and investments in green initiatives. However, if pursued they could reflect an improved brand value for a company with an environmental focus.

Leading economists – including Nicholas Stern – call for immediate $400bn global fund to generate clean power, insulate homes and create jobs.

Governments across the world must commit to hundreds of billions of pounds in green investments within months in a combined attack on the global economic crisis and global warming, according to leading economists including Nicholas Stern.

The team says some $400bn (£277bn) should be channelled to support low-carbon technologies such as home insulation and renewable energy. Given the urgency of both the economic and climate crises, it wants the green investment made by this summer and to total 20% of the £1.4tn likely to be spent globally as fiscal stimulus.

Green Municipal Bonds offer the opportunity to rescue the economy and the environment. Local governments are needlessly watching their economies disintegrate, waiting and begging for handouts from Washington D.C., while all along the power to save their economies and help the environment lies in their hands.

In a wide-ranging interview with PBS’s “Nightly Business Report” on Jan. 22, Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett addressed the economy, credit crisis, government stimulus bills, the Madoff scandal and his own investing strategy.