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| Feature |
Portfolios With Purpose
Catherine Curan
03/01/2008
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Microfinance is another hot area for affluent investors, who
now have 70 funds to choose from. Davidson and his family have logged healthy
returns on money invested in BlueOrchard, a fund of funds.
Ultimately, SRI across various asset classes will keep winning
investors’ dollars by generating strong returns. Davidson says his portfolio has
been net positive thanks to some outsize winners. He is now exploring a fund,
structured like a private equity investment, to provide responsible stewardship
of Western ranch lands.
Al Jubitz is also looking for more socially responsible
investments, including bonds and hedge funds. "No question that once I start
marching down this path," he says, "I would desire the whole portfolio to be
SRI."
Catherine Curan is a senior correspondent for Worth.
Some investors in social
responsibility choose equities, others microcredit. Stephanie Odegard takes a
more active approach, having started a New York business that employs more than
10,000 people in Nepal.
Her eponymous $15 million company produces and imports handmade
rugs that combine her modern designs with traditional Tibetan techniques. The
sumptuous solid blocks of color in her Nima collection recall the hallucinatory
depth of a Rothko painting, in organic wool soft enough to invite bare feet.
Best of all, the carpets are produced under socially responsible conditions from
start to finish. That means washing the rugs in chemical-free recycled water,
dyeing them in plants with smoke-free boilers, and ensuring that they earn a
certification from the carpet-industry organization Rugmark, which indicates
that children did not manufacture the rugs. Thanks to Rugmark, 7,000 children
have been educated in Nepal.
"I started this business to prove you could do a socially
responsible business that would impact a huge number of people in a country much
less developed, making a traditional artisanal product that would mean something
to the people who made it and also appeal to a high-net-worth, sophisticated
market that could understand this nature of the project," Odegard says. "The
business has to be profitable on this side of the ocean; the Nepalese need
ongoing business and an ongoing source of income."
Founded in 1987 with $20,000 in start-up capital, Odegard Inc.
logged 20 percent revenue growth in 2007 over 2006. The rugs grace trendy
restaurants, hotels and top museums, including Restaurant Daniel in New York,
Robert De Niro’s hotel in Manhattan’s TriBeCa neighborhood and the Getty Museum
in Los Angeles.
Odegard, who also invests her company’s 401(k) money in
socially responsible funds, says her business allows her to help others while
having an outlet for her creative side. "This fits all of my desires and
passions," she says.
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