Last year investors put nearly $3 trillion into investment portfolios and funds that are screened for social responsibility, up from $639 billion in 1995, according to the Social Investment Forum. And 79 percent of those portfolios focus on companies’ environmental records, up from 37 percent in 1997. Advocates of eco-friendly investing argue that companies with bad environmental records can turn out to be bad investments because they can be subject to government fines and liable for expensive cleanups. On the other hand, companies with good green records can often turn out to be good financial bets; hot growth industries right now include organic foods and alternative energy sources like fuel cells.
