How to boost your portfolio’s ethical credentials

I have previously written about ethical funds and how they deserve a place in your portfolio. In fact, the research concluded that ethical funds have generally been stronger performers than their non-ethical peers over the short term and long term. It means that investing ethically does not have to negatively impact your investment returns.

However, while the demand for ethical investment solutions is increasing, the level of information available to investors is not keeping pace. One of the first challenges for investors wanting to invest ethically is determining which companies and funds are actually run in an ethical and sustainable way.

Of course, there's the additional problem of the lack of a standardised definition of what constitutes "good ethics". There's also a range of acronyms, including ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) or SRI (Socially Responsible Investing) that you need to navigate and understand.