National Ethical Investment Week: Less than two weeks to go
07 May 2008 / by Rachael Stiles
National Ethical Investment Week is a venture of the UK Social Investment Forum (UKSIF). It will run from May 18th to 24th and is aimed at raising awareness amongst consumers and corporations about the importance of considering the environment when making a wide range of financial decisions, such as where to invest their money and where they should buy their groceries.
UKSIF has found that there is a rising general awareness about the effects of each decision, illustrated by a 600 per cent increase in the number of people investing in ethical funds compared with this time last year and the soaring number of people choosing fair trade and organic fruit and vegetables.
NEIW is being supported by a number of high profile companies and organisations, which it hopes will increase coverage of the event and encourage more people to choose ethical investments.
Advocates of green investment claim that it can offer benefits not only for the environment and human rights, but that it can also offer considerable financial rewards, despite the common misconception that socially responsible products equal lower returns.
The event has attracted praise from Joan Ruddock MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Climate Change, Biodiversity and Waste, who has written to UKSIF to voice her support. She said: “I welcome the work of UKSIF in raising awareness of sustainable and responsible investment and support the aims of the first National Ethical Investment Week.”
Oxfam has also spoken in favour of the event, and is the latest non-Governmental organisation to lend the event its support, joining Skandia, threesixty and smile invest, among others.
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