They re into the market for speculative purposes only, eliminating any possibility of active shareholdership or any other kind of ethical investment stewardship. Volume in Canadian derivatives, for example, is still small compared with the amount of activity on the Canadian stock exchanges. The lion s share of investment is still of the old-fashioned stock and bond variety. T his fact can give ethical investors room for hope. If the fledgling ethical investment movement can continue to grow, raising awareness about the choices available to institutional and individual investors, socially responsible investment will play a key role in reforming corporate behaviour in the future.
T here are reasons to be optimistic.
About 200,000 investors have placed money with these funds, creating a significant niche in the mutual fund market. There are reasons to be optimistic. Negative screening is the use of particular guidelines to screen out certain investments based on ethical, social or environmental values. Typical negative screens include tobacco or alcohol production, products manufactured through the use of child or sweatshop labour, the sale of military equipment or weapons, products tested on animals, or involvement with the pornography or gambling industries. Companies that fail to pass these screens are eliminated from possible investment.