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.”