More consumers ''prepared to make ethical investments''

By MoneyhighStreet Staff. Published on May 24, 2008 This post currently has no comments.

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More and more people from the UK are considering ethical investments, an industry expert has said.

Jason Hollands, head of group communications at F&C Asset Management, explained that the success of Fair Trade products and events like Live Earth had raised the profile of ethical issues.

This meant that more were now prepared to put their money into ethical investments, he added.

"People are more aware of these issues," Mr Hollands explained. "Because communications are so much better in the world now, people are much more attuned to issues like human rights.

"When these [ethical] funds first launched they were much more targeted at people who had strong religious views or were pacifists or people who had very strong principles.

"Now these funds have tended to go much more mainstream because the broader public are much more aware of ethical issues and inclined to put their money where there principles are."

Mr Hollands concluded that ethical investments would continue to grow in popularity as more data was made available about the impressive returns they have generated.

Figures from Ethical Investment Research Service (EIRIS) showed that £8.9 billion had been invested in Britain’s green and ethical retail funds by December 2007.