Ethical funds: the good, the mad and the so-so

I'm no ALF member, but even I think an ethical investment fund shouldn't invest in companies that do animal testing. Odd, then, that the Henderson Ethical Fund - which includes First Group, the transport company doing Fuel Cell buses (pictured) - relaxed its ethical screening last week and now invests in animal-testing health outfits. Still, there are plenty of alternatives. Aegon's is generally considered to be pretty sound on ethics, has been going since 1989 and is doing OK at the moment. Star performer for your green cash, though is currently F&C's Stewardship Income fund which, as you can see from the graph on this page, is going up, up, up. Fingers crossed, now all the political parties - to one degree or another - are committed to renewables, green law and Kyoto, you should be onto a winner if you don't mind investing for the long term. [found via The Telegraph]