The word ‘ethical’ is defined as basically aligning with the rules or standards of right moral conduct. That could mean different things to different people, so deciding what is ethical can get a little tricky. What makes things a little easier is a standard of some sort but what is that standard? Let’s find out.
Standards of Right Moral Conduct
When it comes to deciding what is ethicality for you, the standards of right moral conduct must be more than just an abstract idea. First, start with the golden rule. This is a blanket idea that can be applied to all companies. Selecting investment funds starts with companies who at least try to do no harm to humankind.
While there is no perfect investment, there are those who measure quite a bit higher on the ethical scales of justice. These are the funds who at least attempt to maximize value for their stakeholders, consumers, and employees while being socially responsible. Social responsibility boils down to sustainability.
Personal Investment Goals
Now that you’ve got a better idea of what is ethical, it’s time to identify your personal goals. Are you interested in supporting minority owned businesses? Are you more interested in selecting ethical investment funds that raise up impoverished communities? What is ethicality on your personal scale?
Think about what’s really important to you, what’s close to your heart. Your scope can be as general or as specific as you like, as long as it speaks to you. The most important thing is that your choices are close to your heart and align with your personal values. Your profits are so much more fulfilling when your investment goals closely reflect your personal values. Once you decide what is ethicality on a personal scale, you can apply it to your investments.
Quantifying Humankind Value
Selecting ethical investment funds is all about quantifying the Humankind value of the funds you’re considering. By using money as a ruler, you can give each fund a potential score. They receive a positive value for the good they do as a company, and a contrastingly negative score for the bad.
For Instance, Anheuser-Busch probably makes quite a bit of money for its investors, so that will be a positive number. Its employees are treated well, so that’s another positive value. However, thousands of consumers die every year as a result of cirrhosis of the liver and drunk driving accidents. That will be a pretty high negative value. Its plants are polluting the environment, so that will be another negative value. When you quantify it all in dollar values and ask what is ethicality, Anheuser-Busch would probably not be an ethical investment fund.
Deciding What is Ethicality
If you’re serious about selecting ethical investment funds and sticking with what is ethicality, it’s going to take a little work. You’ve got to scan the field for funds with standards of right moral conduct. Then you’ve got to narrow down your core beliefs and personal values and weed out the funds that don’t measure up for you.
Now its time to quantify the Humankind value of the funds that are left. This is where the bulk of the hard work begins because it takes quite a bit of research to quantify the Humankind value of a fund. Selecting ethical investment funds is important and it’s no easy task but partnering with a community of like-minded investors makes it simple. Humankind Investments will do the research on your behalf and so much more because selecting ethical investment funds is what we do.
