In this study, screening statistics included the firms' total amount of pollutant releases, their number of reported spills, and the amounts of penalties they paid for violations of nine environmental statutes. Perhaps the best, both from an environmental and social perspective, is the New York-based New Alternatives Fund. This fund looks for environmentally friendly technologies such as recycling, wind turbines, and hydroelectric, photovoltaic, natural gas, fuel cell, and biomass energy. Those watching the stock market for a living find it frustrating to observe the extremely myopic vision of most investors. Photovoltaic technology, for instance, is a clear win-win in the long term.
Solar energy is renewable, clean, dependable, and quiet.
Its development and widespread use would help not just the environment but the national interest, since the country would be less dependent on imported fossil fuels. Most investors, however, do not want to wait for returns available even seven calendar quarters into the future-so investing in the seventh generation is an outrageous thought. New Alternatives looks for very targeted investments in companies specifically helping the environment. The active, targeted investment is unlikely to mimic the financial return of any published, broad, capitalization-weighted list of stocks. But over the long run, the return is very respectable, and it is certainly possible that both the economic and the environmental returns will ultimately exceed that of the broader indices.