Friday, October 7, 2011

Ethical Investing and Values-Based Investing ? The Business Ethics ...

If you?re an investor, and if you want your money invested in companies that will not just bring you a return on investment, but will also some good in the world, that means you?re interested in what is variously called ?responsible investing? or ?ethical investing? or ?values-based investing.?

I was recently interviewed for a documentary on the topic. Here it is: ?Responsible Investing: An Evolving Story.? The 20-minute video was produced by the Ontario Teachers? Pension Plan (OTPP). OTPP (colloquially known as ?Teachers?) is one of the biggest institutional investors in Canada, managing a fund of just over a hundred billion dollars.

One of the main points I tried to make in the segments I?m in is that the key to thinking about values-based investing is to think of it as a mechanism for value-alignment. That is, it?s a way for investors to invest in companies whose values are like their own. It allows pacifists to avoid investing in arms manufacturers, and allows anyone who is stridently anti-tobacco to avoid investing in that industry. It?s not about all of us investing in products or industries that are ?more ethical?, overall. Such global judgments are difficult to arrive at, and even harder to find consensus on.

That is, it?s best not to think of values-based investing as ?ethical? investing, as if in contrast to all that other, unethical, investing. Indeed, referring to it as ?ethical? investing probably makes the same mistake as references to ?ethical oil? or ?ethical food? does: it confuses the fact that there is ethical reasoning involved in such investing with a much grander claim that your investments are the only (or most) ethical ones.

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Source: http://businessethicsblog.com/2011/10/07/responsible-investing-and-values-based-investing/

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