How important is Ethical Investing?

Probably as well to invest in a chocolate maker as well, as those sales will possibly increase if marijuana is legalised

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As a former smoker, there’s something so gratifying about receiving dividends from tobacco companies. It’s payback time baby! :smiley:

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Haha might have to start researching cocoa commodities - get it right from the source!

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:rofl::rofl:

We’re getting to the root of it now haha!

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I’ve tried to remove all emotion out of my investing, therefore I have invested in all - oil, mining, tobacco, gambling, alcohol, defence etc. I’m sure all of these are represented in the various trackers I invest in and I’m happy to collect the dividends they pay me.

As and when I see more investments considered more ethical (eg Renewables), I will add to my portfolio alongside the not-so ethical ones.

If I was to delve in too deeply about what I personally considered ethical, I’d end up not investing at all.

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I like Perpetual Income & Growth investment trust, but decided to sell my shares when I noticed that they hold a high proportion of tobacco companies. I guess they need to do this as those companies have a high dividend yield.

Just found this about sustainable investing. Interesting read

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The fact that ESG is concept that is defined by your own viewpoint and thus can be stretched in many different directions, is underlined by the fact that some people view gambling as non-ethical and won’t invest in it.

Yet here we are, investing in stocks. One could be forgiven to ask if an informed punter with horses or football is more or less of a gambler vis-a-vis an informed DIY investor in stocks? :grin:

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I have a small position in TRIG. Mainly down to my view on £££ and the undeniable future of renewable energy but also nice to invest in renewables from an ESG perspective. I will likely increase in my position over time.

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Awesome @Rat_au_van

I often presumed that there’s probably no or negligible lower returns investing sustainably, vs. not, when you consider that the most ā€œunsustainable/ethicalā€ industries are well established and pay dividends more than grow. Just had no research to validate - so thanks for sharing!

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One could be forgiven. It’s typically the first counter-argument my non-investing friends say to me.

So I put my personal thoughts down on this a few months back.

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Defo - and hopefully we get a lot more sustainable options on the platform soon to choose from - as TRIG is really the only real dedicated option atm.

I considered it, but only didn’t invest due to the 1.12% expense ratio.

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I bought a few in TRIGG to keep an eye. It’s my first single stock buy, because ethical based investing is of some importance to me.

Would love to see Freetrade get to a place where stocks have some kind of tagging, eg ā€œsocially responsibleā€ (copying from Moneybox on that one), ā€œrenewableā€, amongst other categorisations like ā€œtechā€, ā€œfoodā€ etc and being able to filter on these.

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I was having a really interesting conversation with my brother in law about whether fracking was ethical or not. I did not consider it even green.

Currently working at singing hills golf club as a green keeper before heading back to Africa in the Autumn and on my drive to work each morning I go past Uckfield and the proposed fracking site.

Now my brother in laws argument is that fracking does less damage to the environment then many other forms of procuring energy. Being an overly cautious chap I am still concerned about the environmental impact.

The investor side of me though, looks at what it has done for the economy in the US and thinks, well maybe it is a good route to go down.

I find it very conflicting.

Yes, I’ve just added TRIG to the mix. Primarily as I’ve already got First Solar which has done superbly and I the performance for TRIG has been great.

Looking forward to more coming to the platform hopefully, as there’s not many atm.

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That’s interesting, I mean from my limited knowledge it isn’t green, primarily because it isn’t renewable.

I see green as renewable, meaning it continues to generate energy, either via wind, sun, water etc.

Also there’s been reports of earthquakes, water, air pollution and methane… which doesn’t feel green to me.

Check out this article. 26 Pros And Cons Of Fracking – Vittana.org

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TRIG is on this persistent rise over the last 12 months. My basic invest knowledge would say that means there’s a drop to come, but the share price is still so cheap it feels like one to go for and how far could it drop :thinking:

How many shares did you buy if you don’t mind sharing?

Yes, more ethical options! You could argue stocks like Beyond Meat are ethical, too, but that might be one that is hitting its peak right now. Ready for a slow decline. :man_shrugging:

@benlambert I guess the argument is that it’s greener than some other fossil fuel-based energy sources but not that it’s greener than renewables? Intuitively it feels that fracking is, basically, a Bad Thing, but I have no data to back that feel up.

As for investing, there’s an argument that carbon assets will eventually - and perhaps suddenly - go to zero (it’s quite something to realise that your Vanguard Lifestrategy fund is something like 2.5% in Shell and BP). It is interesting thinking about how you’d turn that argument into an investment position.

Would love to see more green stocks/ETFs on FT, perhaps starting with iShares global clean energy and UKW.L… ?

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Just invest in whatever… it’s what you do with the gains is the ethical part!!! Bringing ā€œfeelingsā€ into it will lead you to making bad decisions. Invest with your head not your heart

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Yes I think his point was that it was greener then other fossil fuel based energy sources.

Still to be convinced myself that is ā€œgreenā€