Ethical Investment: Discerning the right thing to do

Eoin McCarthy shares how his approach to ethical investment is influenced by his Quaker beliefs

by Eoin McCarthy 14th October 2011

My ethics are my conscious behaviour. This behaviour can be selfish, like a small child, or caring, as with establishing a foundation for the care of historic monuments. My behaviour can be rules-based, like the ethical posture of the Co-operative Bank, or reasoned, as with Tony Blair’s war on Iraq.  Ethical investment tries to connect investors to ethical behaviour by managers of assets and companies. Difficulties arise when we apprehend that, over time, most people behave in inconsistent ways, and that groups of managers are vulnerable to context, leadership, fear and groupthink. The consequence is that what looked like a reliably ethical investment last year can become this year’s corporate devil.