Low impact living: Money, as they say, makes the world go round. But money can also make parts of the world lurch, judder, and grind to a halt - if, for instance, it is funding operations which involve environmental destruction or exploitation of workers. Few of us would knowingly hand over a wad of cash to someone bent on devastation or injustice, but it is still possible that our money is supporting these kinds of activities.
When we lodge funds into a bank, or pay them into a pension, or into a savings or investment plan, we often have no idea where the money's been or who it's been consorting with, before it comes back to us months or years later, nicely fattened up.
However, it is now possible to subscribe to "ethical" funds, which invest only in companies that meet certain standards. For example, an ethical or "socially responsible investment" (SRI) fund is likely to screen out corporations involved in arms, nuclear power, tobacco, pornography, pollution, environmental damage, animal abuse, gambling, exploitation of Third World countries and trade with oppressive regimes. Positive criteria are also applied. Chosen companies must be committed to improving their workers' health care and quality of life, to providing good quality products, and to being involved in the community. They must also support good environmental practices, and be open and transparent about their activities.
According to Ray McNicholas, of Ethical Financial, a brokerage specialising in SRIs, the whole area of ethical funds is "not an exact science". Wholesome businesses may be bought over by larger, less salubrious corporations; or companies that seem squeaky clean on the surface may have subsidiaries that are carrying out dubious practices. If a company slips up on the ethical front it can be thrown out of a fund, or - preferably - be persuaded to get back in line.
The first SRI initiative in Ireland was the Friends First Stewardship Fund, which was founded in 1989. According to Ray McNicholas, it remains the market leader. Ethical funds are also managed by Dolmen Stockbrokers and Hibernian.
As regards our day-to-day personal finances, there are no "ethical" banks in this country, although there are a couple in the UK. So for current and deposit accounts, loans, and holes in the walls that spew out currency, we have to stick with our famously opaque Irish banking institutions. Maybe it's time for a word with their managers?