1. Choose a Green Investing Sector
Green investing sectors include
renewable energy, organic and natural foods, and pollution controls and environmental cleanup. Each of these sectors is further broken into subgroups and sub-subgroups, according to Jeff Siegel of Green Chip Stocks. Choose the sector(s) which best aligns with your environmental and personal interests and scout for the best financial growth opportunities within your chosen category of interest. Although we would like to believe that all green securities are good investments, remember that there is risk when investing in any new technology sector or in any new company. Remember that diversification is key to any successful investment strategy. You can protect your funds and bolster multiple environmental sectors, through diversifying your portfolio by investing in a variety of green sectors.
2. Screen for Green
Create guidelines and boundaries for yourself when choosing which types of environmentally focused companies to invest in. For example, some green-minded mutual funds screen out things like tobacco and military products, but not nuclear power and clean coal technology. In addition, when investing in mutual funds decide whether you want to go with a fund that uses a positive screen or a negative screen when selecting which companies to back [see the "Getting Techie" section for more details on positive and negative screening].
-OR-
Read about T. Boone Pickens' green investing plan (which may be a little too large-scale for you try at home).
Note: The Huffington Post and Planet Green do not endorse any business in this guide and are not in the business of providing financial advice. Any potential investor acting on any advice provided in this guide does so at their own risk. The Huffington Post and Planet Green advise potential investors reading this guide to always seek financial advice from a financial advisor before investing. No information provided in this guide should be considered an inducement to invest.