Review
Asset managers Augustin Landier and Vinay B. Nair explain how to make your investments reflect your values–without sacrificing returns in the process. Their well-researched book offers portraits of typical values investors, presents statistics that convince the skeptical, and makes a convincing argument for adding socially responsible investments to your portfolio. Questions for Co-Authors Augustin Landier and Vinay B. Nair : In your book, you identify three types of va…
Buy Investing for Change: Profit from Responsible Investment at Amazon
This book has some good qualities but some annoying issues. It makes some excellent points about how individual investors can make a difference for the better through Socially Responsible Investment (SRI). The book is well researched and does a great job at bringing together a wide variety of source data, and analyzes that data in order to show the benefits, both moral and financial, of SRI. It has a good set of end notes, and a very good quality index. An appendix lists SRI mutual funds. There are frequent side-bars to give examples of certain points or define a term.
The authors group potential investors into three color-coded groups (to help avoid confusion in the closing chapters as the strategies are compared): Yellow, blue, and red. The yellow group want to avoid investing in certain industries or companies, regardless of the potential loss in portfolio returns, the blue group will tolerate “not terrible” companies but avoid “terrible” companies. An example would be the blue investor might consider a company that produces alcoholic beverages if it did not target young drinkers, where the yellow group would not consider any alcoholic beverage company, if that was a value they held. The red investor would be one who only would buy a company with good values if it had superior returns over another similar company with so-so values.
One of the things I found interesting was the positive impact of shareholder resolutions, even when the resolutions do not pass. A large institutional investor was able to influence a company 95% of the time even though only one of its resolutions passed. They make a good case that SRI is building enough momentum to truly make a difference.
Now some quibbles. Even though I have a degree in finance, it took me quite a while to wade through the book. It seems to be marketed to a wide range of investors, but some of the material will scare off a lot of people, which is a shame, as a lot of the techniques described are easy to do. There is a lot of repetition, and they always mention the authors and the firm or university of studies they mention in the text, even though that is in the end notes, making the text awkward. And one idea they don’t even mention, is for investors to review the prospectus information for their current holdings to look for problem areas.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Makes good sense
I was looking forward to the release of this book. It makes sense to me that you should invest your money in places that are related to your values and the authors give a lot of…
4.0 out of 5 stars
Noble Goal for a New Fiscal World
The book addresses a model for investing that takes into account one’s values—Socially Responsible Investing (SRI).
Remarkable & very thoughtful text on SRI, the very different topic in investment. In today’s scenario, when everyone is talking about depression, saving the money, and even some opportunists are actually investing for long-term gain, these authors have come up with a book on Socially Responsible Investment.
I liked the author’s approach in writing for SRI by questioning profits vs. values and encouraging people to invest in what reflects their values. They have also predicted that SRIs will be profitable in long term.
The book is very nicely written and the charts and graphics are well-designed to convey the meaning of accompanying text. Reader must be prepared to understand the analysis, inferences etc. and must have a little bit of knowledge of the terminology used in this area. That will greatly augment your understanding of the author’s points.
Overall, a recommended read for Socially Responsible Individuals!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Read
Augustin Ladier and Vinay Nair’s “Investing for Change” is a study of socially responsible investing (SRI), its history, and how people can potentially make sound investments that…
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting But Not Sure How Practical It Is
I share many of the other reviewers’ concerns with this book. It can be both basic and overly complex at almost the same time.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Basic information
The information explained within this book is good, solid information on how to research a company you are interested in investing in. That being said, it IS basic.
This is a really intriguing book which looks at how investors can use their values to shape not only their stock portfolios, but the companies they invest in as well as explaining how this is a form of social activism. I found this book to be useful in terms of considering how I want to plan my investments to reflect my values as well as helping me be an agent of social change. This book shows that people who are middle class can be socially aware and use their financial influence to be a positive force for change. Different criterias of investing for change are included which examine the motivations of people for doing certain types of investments. Definitely worth reading if you want to use your finances to make a statement about your values.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Investing green, right now maybe not
Investing in anything is not quite as easy for everyone in this current recession climate so even if it is investing green most people would not see the benefits of investing even…
3.0 out of 5 stars
green mainstream investing?
This is a good book if you are interested in investing in the new “green” shaded areas of Wall Street.
4.0 out of 5 stars
An important and easy-to-read book
These days we’re all hearing so much about the economy, and receiving such conflicting investment advice!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, some help for SR folks
Yes, I recycle. Yes, I conserve energy. Yes, I try to lessen my footprint on the world. So now, yes, I have some help with investing in a socially responsible way.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Achievable for Every One of Us
You might ask, in our current economy, who can even afford to invest? However, I know many people who routinely tithe 10% of their income to good causes.