Keeping things green

In times of economic crisis, does morality always have to go out of the window?

Ethical investors are discovering just how green they really are during the downturn. Many doubt even those as pure as the driven snow will be able to resist the odd moral compromise to boost their ailing portfolio. Helen Richardson from Pantheon speaks for the sceptics. "People's morals have gone out the window," she says. "Investing ethically narrows down the universe of stocks and introduces more risks." Spelling out the practical difficulties of being socially responsible, she adds: "We can't build a portfolio around ethical investments because it will be skewed to one asset class. ...