In a Marc Gunther piece for Fortune, republished here by Yahoo! Finance, socially responsible mutual funds (in the US) are taken to task…

“Do feel-good mutual funds deliver less than they promise? Their assets are growing slightly faster than the mutual fund industry as a whole—up by 156% over the past five years, to $31.9 billion, according to fund analyst Lipper. But critics, led by Paul Hawken, the author, environmentalist, and entrepreneur, say that the idea of ‘socially responsible investing’ (SRI) has been stretched so far that it has become meaningless. In a blistering 35-page report that has roiled the SRI world, Hawken and his Natural Capital Institute say the industry has ‘no standards, no definitions, and no regulations other than financial regulations.”

And whether one agrees with the contention or not, it brings to light an important question - What is a socially responsible company and how do socially committed investors best effect change?