Beware of SRI Burnout

In the Sunday New York Times yesterday there was a timely article about the surge in information about green living and the often frustrating effort that goes with it. It can be frustrating because people try to act in a way that benefits the environment, but then hear that they really aren't. A common "gotcha" of late involves organic foods. Someone makes the effort to buy naturally grown foods, even paying more than they would for conventional produce, only to be told that those foods were trucked for miles by carbon belching behemoths that harm the environment as much as the local industrial farm. Have enough of those moments and you'll toss away all your low-energy light bulbs.

New socially responsible investors face the same peril. Conventional investing is demanding. It takes time and effort to understand yourself as an investor, determine your investment goals and then create a portfolio that will achieve those goals. Doing all that plus making sure your stocks, mutual funds, community investments or whatever meet your ethical principles requires commitment. You might start out green, but you could end up brown from the burnout.

If you're new to socially responsible investing begin with mutual funds. The professional managers do the heavy lifting of screening stocks and analyzing the numbers. Sure, there are expenses, but it makes sense to pay them as you learn the ropes. The larger fund families include Domini Social Investments, Calvert Funds and Pax World Mutual Funds. You'll find a list of the largest funds here.

Remember this, however: finding mutual funds or companies that share your concern for the environment, who believe corporations should operate ethically, who think that workers should be treated with integrity or who believe in investing in distressed communities could be called hard work by a lot of people. Most socially responsible investors call it passion.