Environmentally conscious investors in the top 24 funds can now figure out which funds are supporting companies that contribute to global warming.

Is It Getting Hot in Here?
Fund Families	Number of Funds in Top 24	Total Top 24 Fund Assets, $Bn (7/2/04)
Vanguard	6	205.3
Fidelity	8	255.6
American Funds	8	309.8
Dodge & Cox	1	34.2
American Century	1	21.9
Total	24	826.8
Results for America, citing Morningstar and Yahoo! Finance

Advocacy group the Civil Society Institute has launched a website called "Cooking Your Nest Egg ," designed to provide investors information with fund holdings that are contributing to global warming.

Investors can scrutinize the holdings of funds from the Vanguard, Fidelity, American Funds, Dodge & Cox and the American Century families.

The site provides company-specific information from KLD Research & Analytics, a social research group.

Not all the information is negative, however. For example, the site stated that Xerox, a holding of the American Funds' New Perspective Fund, "reported that it was developing a company-wide methodology for measuring greenhouse gas emissions and establishing a baseline inventory. In 2004 Xerox expects to set corporate targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through 2012."

"[I]nvestors don’t have to wait for proxy resolutions to be filed to start taking action - they can learn more about what their funds hold and decide if that’s right for them. Global warming is an excellent place to start. Many Americans wouldn’t conceive of buying food without knowing about what goes into it and whether or not it’s right for them. Now, we may very well start to see the kind of ‘content consciousness’ on the part of mutual fund investors," stated Peter Kinder, president of KLD Research & Analytics. 

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE