Why socially responsible funds are behind this month

EP: Smaller [energy] companies, companies on the cutting edge [that] are looking at wind power, solar, geothermal. They're looking at how energy can be transmitted more efficiently. They might even be investing in some of the technology for hybrid cars, which is a very exciting story now.

EP: Absolutely. A fund like New Alternatives is designed to be a small part of your portfolio. A general guideline, for my more growth- oriented clients: Up to maybe 10 percent could be appropriate. For some of my more conservative clients, we could say maybe 5 to 8 percent.

EP: The one I'm very partial to comes from Calvert, which is the largest family of socially responsible funds. Their fund is the oldest one in that arena. What they've been able to do is take a look at certain companies particularly within Europe, where a lot of social investing has been centered; Japan, to a lesser degree, Canada. We feel that they're very good at picking companies within those areas that have been performing well but also role models for what we call good, solid corporate governance.

EP: Calvert World Values.

EP: Over the last year, they were up about 9.8 percent. But let's stand back a little bit. Over the last three years, they're up over 9 percent per year.

EP: I've been in the business 12 years. When I first started, it was a much more limited universe. At that point, we had probably 10 to 12 funds. We now have over 50 different funds. So it means you can have that diversification.

EP: There's a new fund [CRA Qualified Investment Fund] that's been doing community investing. They're investing in community development groups and banks that are taking the money and lending it back to the community. So it's a way that you can have that conservative, fixed-income part of a portfolio, but you're making a difference where the money goes.

EP: I think we're going to be looking at a difficult, challenging summer. We're probably going to be seeing $60 [a barrel] oil before we see $40 oil. Interest rates continue to weigh on the markets. And the other thing we're going to be concerned about is going to be the earnings of companies coming up. There's some uncertainty in that area. You want to be careful.

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