I’ve been in denial long enough – I’m an adult now, and I have to think about adult things, like…retirement. Although I’m still watering the sprout that is my career, I’m told that I have to make sure there will eventually be enough fruit on the branches come retirement’s “harvest.” So I am currently exploring my options for opening my first IRA. But I don’t want to throw my money into just any pot that promises economic viability. I want to throw it into one that also promises ecological and social viability. I want the triple bottom line: people, planet and profit. Fortunately, this option exists.

Several mutual funds and investment firms have recognized the importance of the triple bottom line, enabling investors to match their financial needs with their environmental and social values. These funds and firms represent only those companies that can prove, after rigorous evaluation, they’ve implemented effective measures to reduce pollution, stop global warming, protect wild spaces and wildlife, respect human rights, and/or demonstrate community commitment. By investing in such companies, investors have the ability to positively influence corporations into adopting better environmental, social, and governance practices and policies. This is socially responsible investing, or SRI (yes, it even has its own acronym).

There are three easy ways to invest your money in the planet and people, while making a profit. First, there are socially responsible mutual funds – conglomerations of shares in corporations that are considered as those that practice socially and environmentally responsible business behavior. For example, Portland-based Portfolio 21 represents companies such as TrustPower, a renewable power retailer, and Henkel, a low-impact cleaning and adhesive manufacturer. A second way is by partaking in shareholder activism, which entails introducing shareholder resolutions (i.e. proposals) addressing environmental, social and/or governance concerns to corporate management, who then vote upon them. This gives investors the power to encourage corporate responsibility and discourage bad corporate habits. Such activism convinced Home Depot to start selling sustainably grown and harvested forest products and made Coca-Cola implement measures to conserve water in its bottling operations. Third, an investor can partake in community investing, which puts money into financially under-served communities, providing access to credit, equity, capital, and basic banking products that they otherwise are without. As a result, these communities acquire the capability to create opportunities for housing, small business development, and training for its residents.

Women currently claim more than half of all stock ownership in the United States, and by 2010, women will claim half of the private wealth in the country, which translates to about $14 trillion[1]. Our money has gained a lot of economic power in this third wave of feminism, and we have a lot of potential to change the way corporations do business. So, when it’s time for you to make some investment decisions, I encourage you to use the change in your pocket to make change in the world.

For more information on socially responsible investing, check out The Social Investment Forum, and be on your way to a socially responsible, financially viable future.