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A Directory of Socially Responsible Stocks (Companies)Michael Bluejay's listofStockshome MichaelBluejay home EmailmeSocially-ResponsibleStocks
Whatis Socially Responsible Investing(SRI)?The idea behindsocially-responsible investing (SRI)is to invest in companies that don't doobjectionable things, such as pollute theenvironment, exploit workers, or kill animals.Who wants to invest in Shell Oil (for example)when Shell destroys the land of indigenous peopleon third-world countries -- people who are oftenkilledfor protesting such destruction, as was KenSaro Wiwa in Nigeria?We buy stock because we hope the company will besuccessful, which will cause the stock price to goup, so we can sell the stock at a higher price andmake money. But if we buy stock in companies thatdo bad things, then we're profiting from theirevil. Do we really want to make our money that way?Here's a cartoon that puts this idea intoperspective: Cartoon reprinted by permission. VisitTroubletown.comfor more funny politicalcartoons.Incidentally, despite what the cartoon says,responsible investments don't have worse returnsthan unethical ones. Even if they did, many ofus would prefer to sacrifice a small amount ofreturn for the ability to sleep at night.That's the main reason to choose sociallyresponsible stocks, to avoid profiting fromevil. It's not because we're trying to keep ourmoney from going to bad companies, because when youbuy stock you're usually not buying directly fromthe company -- you're buying from other investors.Investors like us just keep exchanging the stockamongst ourselves, and the company doesn't see anyof the money. (Except when the company issues newstock, which is rare.) The reason we don't buymainstream stocks is because our profit would belike blood money.There's another reason to boycott the stock ofbad companies: if enough people don't buythe stock, then the stock price will go down. Thatmight not translate into lost money for thecompany, but it means that it's harder for them todo things such as borrow money. And since corporateexecutives receive much of their compensation inthe form of stock, when the stock price goes down,it's the rich corporate officers -- who aredirecting the company's bad activities -- who takethe hit. When they take such a hit, they have astrong incentive to stop offending investors withtheir questionable business practices.So what criteria do we use to distinguish a"good" company from a "bad" company? Many peopleclassify companies into categories such asthese:Companies whose very product or service isquestionable (e.g., weapons manufacturers andtobacco companies).Companies whose product or service isbenign, but who have poor records in areas suchas the environment, minority advancement,community involvement, or charitablecontributions.Companies whose product or service islaudable, but have poor records in the areasmentioned above.Companies whose product or service is benignand have acceptable records on socialresponsibility..Companies whose product or service islaudable and have acceptable records on socialresponsibility.On the other hand, some say that no largecompany is completely clean -- some are just "lessbad" than others. For example, the largest plasticsrecycler in the world is also the largest producerof virgin plastic. And why producing bicycles is alaudable goal, critics allege that a major bicyclemanufacturer uses sweatshop labor to produce itsbikes.There are still yet other complications: Overthe years the small eco/responsible companies Ilist on this site invariably seem to get bought outby a larger company, or themselves grow bigger andthen attract multinational investors, or go out ofbusiness. As an example of the second case, naturalfoods maker Hain Foods merged with tea makerCelestial Seasonings a while back and thencontinued to swallow up dozens of small naturalfoods makers around the country, and is now a bigenough player that their biggest investor isWellington Management, whose primaryinvestors include Exxon Mobil, Pfizer, Alcoa,Gillette, Pepsi, McDonald's, and Wal-Mart! Who wouldhave guessed?Everyone draws the line in different places.Some people will invest in anything, some willinvest in only certain companies which they feelare acceptable, and some people want nothing to dowith corporate investing at all. This site is forthose in that middle category, who want to investbut are choosy about which companies they'll investin.Can you make moneywith socially-responsible stocks?Yes. A common misconception (andone perpetuated by the cartoon above) is that SRstocks underperform regular stocks. In fact,manysocially-responsible funds outperform thegeneral market.The reason is simple: While it's truethat SR companies are more likely to pass on thebig profits to be made from exploitativepractices, SR companies are also less likely tobe sued or fined for bad business practices. Itbalances out nicely. In fact, looking at justcorporate governance, the companies with thehighest ratings in that area outperformed theS&P 500 by 16% over the past five years.(Source: GMI)As Yahoo Finance said, "The GMI ratingsincorporate hundreds of data points across sixbroad categories including, boardaccountability, financial disclosure andinternal controls, executive compensation,shareholder rights, ownership base and takeoverprovisions and social responsibility. Themajority of corporate governance red flags forUS companies came from the executivecompensation category."What's the differencebetween Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)and Socially ResponsibleStocks?To understand this we need to firstunderstand about investing and stocks ingeneral.Investing simply means putting your moneysomewhere in hopes of getting more money back.Examples include:Putting your money in a savings accountand earning interestBuying a house and then having itappreciate in valueBuying stocks and selling them when theprice goes upInvesting in stocks is called investing inthe market, short for the stock market.There are two ways to invest in the market:Individual Stocks. You open anaccount with a broker and then buy andsell individual stocks yourself. Most peopledon't do this because they think it takes toomuch time, or they're not confident abouttheir ability to pick good stocks.Mutual Funds. Or you can buyshares in a mutual fund and letsomeone else do the work in picking thestucks. A mutual fund purchases large amountsof stock in lots of companies, perhapshundreds of them. When you buy into a mutualfund you own a tiny chunk of that fund, alongwith all the other investors. That way youdon't have to worry about what stocks to pickand when to buy and sell; the mutual fundmanager handles that for you.So to do SRI you have two choices: buyindividual stocks from companies that do good,or buy into a socially-responsible mutual fundwhich screens the companies whose stock they buyon a list of socially-responsible criteria.This website covers the former, reviewingdozens of companies for those who want to buyindividual stocks. We list some SR mutual fundsbelow for those who want to buy into a mutualfund instead.How common isSRI?SRI isn't some fringe idea practicedonly by rich hippies. One out of eight dollarsunder professional management in the U.S. isinvolved in SRI, and Americans have over $2trillion in SR investments.(source)Even theMotley Fool approves of SRI.What'son this siteI spent a lot of time trying to findcompanies whose stock I might be willing to buy,and I created this site to share the results ofmy findings. I looked mostly for companies whoserevenues came from attractive areas (e.g.,recycling, solar energy, natural foods), butdidn't dig too deep to find out the extent oftheir social responsibility. In many cases, thecompanies are so small that socially responsibleinformation on them is hard to come by, and Ialso figured that most companies formed aroundpositive products or services would have moreresponsibility about their business practicesthan would typical companies.I found several companies which I felt aredefinitely unattractive, but whose unattractivefeatures might be unknown to you, leading you tomistakenly invest in them based on research youdid elsewhere which didn't happen to uncovertheir less-than-desirable qualities. (Forexample, Kaiser Aluminum may be involved inrecycling, but if so they certainly didn'tmention it on their website, and notoriousforest-clearcutter MAXXAM owns 2/3 of Kaiser.) Ilisted stocks like these in a special section atthe end of each category.Costof this serviceI am happy to share the results of myresearch at no cost to you. If you want to help,you can let me know when you find broken links,information about companies listed here that'snot on the site, or new companies that I shouldadd to the site.GettingHelp with Your InvestmentsMutualFundsWhereyour tax $ *really*goes.Nearly half of income tax moneygoes to the military! See the REAL piechart. Or see the excellentanimation by TrueMajority. (It's alittle slow getting started, but itgets much, much better.) Maybe you're a new investor and are waryabout buying individual stocks yourself,preferring something less risky or lesstime-consuming? Then you might be interested ininvesting in a mutual fund, or letting amanagement firm invest your money foryou.With a mutual fund, a company takes yourmoney and other investors' money, and theninvests it in stock of several companies (maybe10 to 400 companies, depending on the fund). Youown shares of the mutual fund instead of owningshares in dozens of different companies. You getthe advantage of diversity, without having toinvest a lot of money. (If you were buying theindividual stocks yourself, the commissions ontrading would eat into your profits, unless youhad a lot of money to invest, say morethan $30,000.) Investing in a mutual fundinstead of individual stocks is simpler, savesyou a lot of time, and gives you diversity wheninvesting smaller amounts of money. But youdon't get to make the choices about whatindividual stocks to buy and sell. Most mutualfunds will invest in anything as long as thefund managers think the stocks they buy willmake money, but there are over 100socially-responsible mutual funds whichonly buy stock in companies which pass certainsocial responsibility screenings. Here are someexamples:Socially Responsible in General:Domini,CitizensTrust, CalvertGroup (Java), PAXWorld FundEnvironmentally-Oriented: GreenCentury and NewAlternativesCruelty-Free (no animal abuse):Cruelty Free Value FundWomen-Oriented: Women'sEquityGay/Lesbian-Orinted: MeyersPride Value FundWater-Related: SummitGlobalNote that some "socially-responsible" fundsseem to have very lax criteria -- afterreviewing which stocks they hold, you mightthink, "Gee what WON'T they invest in?" On theother hand, some funds intentionally buy stockin "bad" companies so they can file stockholderresolutions, allowing all the stockholders tovote to require the company to phase out the useof environmentally damaging materials, allowindependent auditors to review the workingconditions of their third-world workers,etc.Note also that many socially-responsiblefunds lose money for their investors, orearn less money than beginning investors couldhave made themselves! Be sure to check out afund's performance and investment criteriathoroughly before giving your money to them.Lists and reviews of various SRI mutualfunds are available from:SocialInvestment Forum | SocialFunds | GreenMoneyHolding Mutual Funds accountable.Owning stock means that you're a part ownerof the company whose stock you hold and you canvote on issues at the annual stockholder meeting(by mail, if you can't attend). But when you ownshares of the mutual fund it's really the mutualfund company that owns the stock, not you, sothey're the ones who get to vote. For years mostfunds kept their voting record secret, but a lawthat took effect in Aug. 2004 now requires funds todisclose their voting records. Not surprisinglymany mutual funds are looking for loopholes inthe law, and Co-op America is encouragingcitizens to demandaccountability from the mutual funds.ManagementFirmsIn contrast to mutual funds, a managementfirm invests your money for you, carefullypicking stocks and/or mutual funds that meetyour investment criteria. An example isRockyMountain Humane Investing, which specializesin handling investments for socially-consciousclients.InvestmentClubsAn investment club is a small group of peoplewho pool their money together to invest, anddecide collectively which companies to investin. In some clubs the members make allinvestment decisions directly, and in others themembers elect a board of directors to make thedecisions.An investment club is like a very smallmutual fund. The advantages are that you canstart investing with a very small amount ofmoney, because you're pooling your money withother investors, and you have some say in whatcompanies to invest in. A club you might beinterested in is RainFrogEthical Investment Partnership.Informationabout CompaniesGood&BadCompaniesResponsibleShopper lists companies according to variouscriteria.SocialFunds.comhas SR information about hundreds companies.MoneyWisdom.com.Links to lists of socially-responsiblecompanies.PETAlists which companies do and don't test theirproducts on animals.The Council on Economic Prioritiesused to rate hundreds of corporations on issuessuch as environmental commitment, workplaceissues, community outreach, minorityadvancement, and military contracts, but in Dec.2004 they seemed to have disappeared off theface of the Internet. Back when their ratingswere up, sometimes they seemed very lenient,giving good marks to some notoriousmultinationals.GoodCompaniesThe GreenMoney Online Guide has shortprofiles about dozens ofsocially-responsible companies.SustainableBusiness.compublishes a newsletter profilingsocially-responsible companies.GoodMoney links to various lists ofcompanies with good records.CleanEdge publishes reports aboutcompanies involved in renewable energy,alternative transportation, cleanwater, and non-hazardous materials.RenewableEnergy Stocks reviews exactly whatyou think they would.BadCompaniesMultinational Monitorrecognizes the 10 Worst Corporationsevery year. Here's their list for2007and for previousyears.Russell Mokhiber (co-author ofCorporate Predators) lists the100Worst Corporations of the decade(1990-2000).On a related note, a site calledResponsibleConsumption highlights products that areorganic, eco-friendly, sweatshop-free, etc.Knowof Other Companies?I'm always happy to hear of otherstocks to list on this page. If you know ofother stocks which fit into the categories onthe left, please letme know. But please don't put meon a mailing list to receive your company'spress releases -- I need to know about a companyonce, not all the time.RelatedinformationOther SRI resources include:ShareholderActivismSocialInvestment ForumSustainableBusiness.comGristMagazine has a column about investing ingreen companies ("Greenbacks"). FanMailYou have one of the best lists of SRIoptions on the web. This is a publicservice that I wish more people would use.-- TuckerGilman, Jan.2003Credits& LegendDescriptions that contain noattribution came from Yahoo!Descriptions from the GreenMoney Online Guide are followedby"GMOG".Descriptions from CitizensTrust are followed by the  symbol.Descriptions written by me are followed by myinitials (MBJ). These were usuallywritten from information I got from thecompany's home page.Notes that were added by me to a descriptionfound elsewhere are listed [insidebrackets]. All entries were written (orfound z& reprinted here) in 6-98, unlessotherwise noted.The  symbol at the beginning of each entry is a linkto Yahoo!'s profile of that company. If noprofile is available, I linked to the chart. Ifno chart is available, I linked to thequote.The symbol is a link to the company's profile on theCitizensTrust site. If the symbol appears at the end of a companydescription, then that description is excerptedfrom the Citizens Trust profile.The name of each company is the link toits home page, if I could find it.Companies listed in italicsare bulletin board (over-the-counter)stocks.Canadian Stocks. Stock symbols endingin ".V" or ".AL" are traded on theCanadianVenture ExchangeDisclaimerI make absolutelyno guarantee as to the accuracy of any of theinformation contained in this site. Nothingherein should be construed as advice to buy orto not buy stock in any particular company. Anyinvestment decisions you make are your own, andyou should realize that 100% of your investmentis at risk when you invest in stocks. Mutualfunds and management firms are listed forinformation purposes only and listing does notconstitute an endorsement.
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