UK becoming more socially responsible

With one sixth of UK consumers demonstrating ethical and environmental concerns in their buying habits, it is no wonder SRI funds are becoming more mainstream

Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) is rapidly becoming a mainstream issue for investors in the UK and other countries. The first ethical funds were created in the 1970s but were very much the domain of private investors and charities, whose main concern was to exclude investing in companies in certain proscribed sectors such as armaments, pornography, tobacco and gambling. As these issues gained wider publicity, the emphasis developed to include environmental factors ' the birth of green investing. At the same time, the research approach shifted from negative to positive screening, fro...