Ski season is over for the Sullivan family and it was a warm one. It was still fun, but we were skiing on slush as early as February. Not to get political, but this global warming debate is all fun and games until it interferes with my winter recreation. So, now it’s time to turn my attention to Environmental Investing.
I DON’T give investment advice in this blog, but in case you were wondering, there are some investments that you can make to help Mother Earth. These would not be areas where I would suggest putting a lot of money. Maybe 5%-10% at most of your total portfolio should ever go into extremely specialized investments.
Is Environmental Investing a good idea?
Historically these environmental sector investments have not had a great risk-reward trade off. In other words, much risk, not so much reward. However, some are starting to do better. Okay, disclosures over. Here are some interesting sector investments I found.
Guggenheim S&P Global Water ETF (CGW)
“Seeks to benefit from the development of new infrastructure, intended to ensure the efficient delivery and quality of water, by investing in companies spanning the water sector.” Quoted from the Guggenheim website.
VanEck Vectors Global Alternative Energy ETF (GEX)
“Index is concentrated in companies whose technologies are involved with solar power, bio energy, wind power, hydro power, and geothermal energy.” Quoted from the VanEck website.
PureFunds ISE Mobile Payments ETF (IPAY)
“The ISE Mobile Payments Index is designed to reflect the performance of companies involved in the mobile and electronic payments industry, including card networks, processors, infrastructure/software and solutions companies.” Quoted from zacks.com.
PowerShares Cleantech ETF (PZD)
“The Index is designed to track the leading cleantech companies, from a broad range of industry sectors that offer the best investment returns. The Cleantech Index is a modified equally weighted index composed of stocks (and ADRs of such stocks) of publicly traded cleantech companies. The Fund and the Index are rebalanced and reconstituted quarterly.” Quoted from invesco.com.
Fidelity Select Environment and Alternative Energy Portfolio (FSELX)
“Investing primarily in companies engaged in business activities related to alternative and renewable energy, energy efficiency, pollution control, water infrastructure, waste and recycling technologies, or other environmental support services.” Quoted from fidelity.com.
Vanguard FTSE Social Index Fund (VFTSX)
“This low-cost fund seeks to track a benchmark of large- and mid-capitalization stocks that have been screened for certain social, human rights, and environmental criteria. In addition to stock market volatility, one of the fund’s other key risks is that this socially conscious approach may produce returns that diverge from those of the broad market.” – Quoted from personal.vanguard.com.
