Values & Ethical Investing Questionnaire

This questionnaire helps us understand your values, beliefs, and preferences so your investments align with what you stand for. Your answers guide how we construct and manage your portfolio across environmental, social, and governance (ESG) areas.

Understanding Ethical & Socially Responsible Investing

The essence of Ethical & Socially Responsible Investing is choosing investments that are in line with your values. However, those values aren’t the same for all investors.

Socially responsible investors choose their investments to promote a variety of different goals, including (but not limited to) the following:

Cleaner Environment. “Green” investors prefer companies that don’t pollute the environment. Some refuse to invest in fossil fuels, while others look for companies that minimise the carbon footprint of their products and services. In addition, it may include a company’s energy use, waste, pollution, natural resource conservation, and treatment of animals. The criteria can also be used in evaluating any environmental risks a company might face and how the company is managing those risks.
Social Justice. Some investors refuse to do business in countries with a record of human rights violations. Others look at the company’s business relationships. Does it work with suppliers that hold the same values as it claims to hold? Does the company donate a percentage of its profits to the local community or encourage employees to perform volunteer work there? Do the company’s working conditions show high regard for its employees’ health and safety? Are other stakeholders’ interests taken into account?
This includes the recent breaches of a number of large organisations in Australia that have been found guilty of underpaying staff for a number of years.
Governance. Investors may want to know that a company uses accurate and transparent accounting methods and that stockholders are given an opportunity to vote on important issues. They may also want assurances that companies avoid conflicts of interest in their choice of board members, don't use political contributions to obtain unduly favourable treatment and, of course, don't engage in illegal practices.
Promoting Peace. Peace investors won’t invest in war in any way. They avoid all companies that make weapons or profit from conflict in foreign countries. This even includes banks and financial institutions that lend money to these companies.
Promoting Health. Many socially responsible investors refuse to invest in companies that sell tobacco or alcohol. Others refuse to invest in products that they think pose a threat to human health, such as genetically modified organisms. Since some of these products can also be seen as threats to the environment, this category overlaps with green investing.
Promoting Morality. Avoiding the ‘sin industries’. Different investors see this category as including different types of enterprises, such as liquor, gambling, pornography, and contraception.