Investor's Capital Management, LLC and Dimensional Fund Advisors offer mutual funds designed for investors who are interested in encouraging firms to engage in sustainable business practices.  According to the Environmental Protection Agency, sustainability means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

For example, business practices that exhaust resources or cause irreversible changes to the earth’s climate are not sustainable. The funds are constructed to provide continuous equity exposure and are tilted towards small cap and value stocks. An overlay is added that increases exposure to companies that have high ratings for sustainable practices and reduces or eliminates exposure to companies with low ratings.  The portfolios are managed to avoid eliminating whole industry sectors that by their very nature, may be seen as less environmentally friendly than others – while acknowledging that companies within these groups engage in differing levels of sustainable business practices.

The environmental sustainability ratings are currently provided by Sustainable Holdings, LLC.  This firm evaluates publicly traded companies on very specifically defined criteria.  These criteria are intended to measure the effectiveness with which the company is handling sustainability issues.  Ratings cover thirteen aspects of the company’s environmental sustainability, organized into the following three broad categories:

1. Climate Change – evaluates the company’s response to the threat of climate change caused by a buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
2. Environmental Vulnerability – gauges measurable emissions and pollution harm, regulatory compliance, and overall record in fulfilling mandated environmental responsibilities.
3. Environmental Strength – tracks record in establishing internal environmental management standards, creating products or services that protect the environment, and reaching out into the community to improve environmental conditions.

 These funds are highly diversified – the US fund contains over 1,900 securities and the International fund contains over 1,200 securities. The mutual fund fees are excellent at about 0.50%.

For Complete Control of the Screening:
For those who wish more control of the screens applied, Investor's Capital Management, LLC in conjunction with Natixis Global Associates, offers a global investment solution that can be customized to the industry sector, sub-sector, and security level. This means you can have complete control over what companies are included in your investments. A minimum of $1,000,000 is required for this investment solution. The Natixis and Schwab fees are about 0.92% and the Schwab fee includes all trading fees.