Investing Responsibly: Aligning Your Money with Your Values

  “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.”  (Proverbs 3:27).
How can you align your investing style with your values? Consider socially responsible investing.
   Whether the focus is on advancing environmental causes, building healthy communities, or promoting corporate ethics, investors interested in making a difference in the world are spurring interest in socially responsible investing (SRI), also known as sustainable and responsible investing.
   “Test everything; hold fast what is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
   Sustainable and responsible investing traces its roots to religious concerns, and it expanded in scope in the 1970s and 1980s as investors joined other protestors against apartheid by choosing not to invest in companies involved in South Africa. From there, the definition of SRI evolved to include the avoidance of “sin stocks” -- stocks of companies that derive earnings from gambling, alcohol, and tobacco. More recently, the concept has expanded further to include any number of social and environmental issues as well as a growing concern with “corporate character” -- seeking out companies that have commendable records on corporate governance.
   Sustainable and responsible investments accounted for more than $3.7 trillion in assets under management as of 2012.1 Depen ...