green investing business definition

Case Study Green Century Capital Management, the administrator of Green Century Funds, was founded in 1991 by several nonprofit environmental advocacy organizations. All of the fees received for managing the funds are used to fund environmental and public interest advocacy work. Green Century Funds include a balanced fund with stocks and bonds of environmentally responsible corporations. The firm's equity fund attempts to achieve a long-term total return that matches the performance of the Domini 400 Social Index, which excludes the stocks of companies that manufacture tobacco products or engage in the production of nuclear energy or weapons. It also excludes companies that derive more than 2% of their revenue from military weapons, or companies that produce firearms or alcohol, or earn revenue from gambling facilities. The five largest holdings of the equity fund as of the end of 2007 were Microsoft, AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, Apple, and Cisco Systems. According to the firm's brochure, the Green Century Equity Fund had underperformed the S&P 500 Index during the ten-year period ending in 2007 by approximately 1.8% annually.