Green Investments

Green Investments are investment activity that focuses on projects or areas that are committed to preservation of the environment such as Pollution reduction, Fossil fuel reduction, conservation of natural resources, generation of alternative energy sources, project related to cleaning and maintenance of air and water, waste management or any other type of environmentally-conscious practices.

The green investing funds can be raised by private equity firms, corporations, hedge funds, or even individuals. Some green investment options with the investor include securities, electronically traded funds, mutual funds, and bonds and can be offered by the governments as well sometimes for generating revenue to fund its projects or the businesses.

• green investments" refers to investment activity that focuses on projects or areas committed to protecting the environment, such as reducing pollution, using fewer fossil fuels, conserving natural resources, and developing alternative energy sources.
• Private equity firms, businesses, hedge funds, or even individuals can raise money for green investments. Securities, electronically traded funds, mutual funds, and bonds are some green investment alternatives for investors. 
• Governments occasionally offer these options to raise money to support their initiatives or businesses.
• Investments considered "green" include stocks, electronically traded funds, mutual funds, and bonds whose issuers are engaged in activities that ultimately seek to improve the environment. 

Green investments are an investment which include securities, electronically traded funds, mutual funds, and bonds in which the person issuing the instruments is involved in operations that have the ultimate aim of improving the environment. It can be any company, whether it is involved in the development of alternative energy technology or the company that has the best environmental practices etc. Under this, the funds are allocated towards those projects which work for the benefit of the environment

All the investors investing in green investments should be aware of companies that simply raise funds as green investing for the purpose of branding only and do not follow the steps which were promised initially by them at the time of raising funds. Therefore ,the current, as well as the potential investors, should research in a proper way before making any investments in the companies, green fund prospectus, and other parameters such as annual filing of the stock. After analyzing, they should see whether investment includes companies that fit in their personal definition or area.

Let us understand the concept of green investment stocks and their intricacies with the help of a couple of examples.

Example #1

Julie is an environmentalist and a social activist who has neglected to concentrate on her own personal finance. When one of her friends explained the importance of creating a discipline where she could make saving and investing a habit, she finally gave in and agreed to invest.

However, being someone who has dedicated her whole adulthood toward the betterment of nature, she wanted to make sure that she invests only in companies that do not harm the environment or even better, work towards the betterment of it.

Therefore, she invested her first $1,000 in companies manufacturing solar power units, electric vehicles, and windmills.

Example #2

source: Reuters.com

Green investments can be in the form of securities, electronically traded funds, mutual funds, and bonds. For example, the Green bond issued by the company Apple worth $ 1.5 billion was the first-ever green bond which was issued by the technology company, and the same was highly popular. The bond even won an award from Environmental Finance in the year 2016.

Another example of green investment includes the sustainability bond issued by Starbucks with the motive of sustainable agriculture improvements, which also gained high popularity.

There are several different advantages of urban green investments, providing the opportunity for the investors as well as for the company to raise funds through these investments. However, there are a handful of disadvantages that must be kept in mind both while investing and while learning about this concept. Let us discuss them through the points below.

Advantages

• The companies raising funds through the means of green investment includes the fact that the company can get funds from the public through this which is much needed for sustainability-related projects because sustainability departments often operate with the lean budgets in the company and the company’s involvement for the cleaner future might require the upfront investments of a significant amount. So, for this purpose, green investment is very helpful for companies.
• The public nowadays has an awareness of the requirement of protecting the environment so, when any person issues a green bond, then it tends to have a good amount of attention from the public, which makes it easier for the companies to raise funds. Also, the companies get recognition in the general public for their innovative approach to sustainability, which in turn is beneficial for the company only.
• From the perspective of the investor, green investments are beneficial because many of the green investment instruments are exempted from the tax, such as the green bonds.
• Along with the other benefits, these investments also provide personal satisfaction to the investors as they have the satisfaction that their invested money is being used in a responsible and positive manner.
• Many of the green investment instruments need to comply with some of the prescribed sets of requirements related to the disclosure, which helps the investors in analyzing whether their money is being used in the right direction or not by the person who raised funds.
• In green bonds, when the demand is high, then there will be low borrowing costs, which will reduce the overall expenditure of the company. This reduction of the expenditure will then pass to the investors only in the form of dividends providing benefits to them.

Disadvantages

• From the perspective of the investors, investing the money in the green companies might not be a great deal than investing in another type of equity strategies because many of the companies in the present world are in the phase of development having low revenues and the high valuations of their earnings making it riskier for them to make the investment.
• As the market of the green investment is small, entry and exit in those instruments is not easy when compared with the more popular investments. Due to this, there is a lack of liquidity in green investment, and the investors cannot withdraw their money as and when required, and it is also not easy to sell those instruments, and thus investors have to hold the same till the maturity.
• Many of the times, there is a lack of clear definition of the green or the purpose for which the money will be invested by the issuer of the investment instrument. Due to this, the investors investing might not exactly know in which area their money is being used, which means that it is probable that their money could be used for the wrong reasons as well.

This has been a guide to what are Green Investment. Here we explain its examples and discuss its advantages and disadvantages in detail. You can earn more about investment from the following articles –

• Who are Institutional Investors?
• Diversified Investments Definition
• Foreign Direct Investment Types
• Cash Investment Types