Eco-investing

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Eco-investing or green investing is a form of socially responsible investing where investments are made in companies that support or provide environmentally friendly products and practices. These companies encourage (and often profit from) new technologies that support the transition from carbon dependence to more sustainable alternatives.^[1] Green finance is "any structured financial activity that has been created to ensure a better environmental outcome."^[2]

As industries' environmental impacts become more apparent, green topics have not only taken center stage in pop-culture, but the financial world as well. In the 1990s, many investors "began to look for those companies that were better than their competitors in terms of managing their environmental impact." While some investors still focus their funds to avoid only "the most egregious polluters," the emphasis for many investors has switched to changing "the way money is used," and using "it in a positive, transformative way to get us from where we are now ultimately to a truly sustainable society."^[3] Investment in companies that are damaging to the environment, and investment into the infrastructure that supports those companies detracts from environmentally sustainable investment.^[4]

The Global Climate Prosperity Scoreboard – launched by Ethical Markets Media and The Climate Prosperity Alliance to monitor private investments in green companies – estimated that over $1.248 trillion has been invested in solar, wind, geothermal, ocean/hydro and other green sectors since 2007. This number represents investments from North America, China, India, and Brazil, as well at other developing countries.^[5]