Ethical Investing

Ethical investing goes by a lot of names. Faith-based investing, biblically responsible investing, morally responsible investing, and sometimes it gets grouped with ESG. The tools do overlap. Both approaches screen companies, vote proxies, engage management, but the difference is the framework behind the tools. ESG evaluates companies against environmental, social, and governance criteria, and those criteria shift as priorities shift. Our framework comes from a longer, deeper moral tradition. We ask a specific set of questions. Is a company involved in a serious moral harm? How grave is it? Is the involvement direct or remote? And given that, does ownership require divestment or perhaps permanent engagement? This is the classical framework of cooperation with evil, and we at Integrity apply it to our portfolios. Sometimes this lands us right where ESG lands, but the reasoning is what's different, and it's why advisors can use our strategies with a clear conscience.