Buy Winslow, Sell High
Green Investment Fund Doubles Returns
The Winslow Green Growth Fund, established in 1994 and run by Matthew Patsky, has doubled its worth in the last 12 months — and outperformed stock benchmarks like the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index — by investing in environmentally and socially responsible companies. Winslow targets such companies as Quantum Fuel Systems Technology Worldwide, a maker of hydrogen and natural-gas fuel tanks for cars, and Chiquita, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2002 with a firm commitment to environmental stewardship. Winslow’s rise mirrors the wider rise of socially responsible funds — funds that avoid companies involved in alcohol, tobacco, nuclear power, weapons, gambling, or other unsavory enterprises — from $12 billion in investments in 1995 to about $151 billion last year. Patsky summarizes the logic connecting green behavior and profitability: “It makes sense that if I haven’t been sitting there scheming about how to dump stuff in the backyard without getting caught but have been thinking about how to do it right, I probably have been thinking about how to do everything right.”