Author: Jamie Hartzell
Date: August 2007
In 1984, Traidcraft launched the first public share issue ever undertaken by an ethical business. Over the last 20 years, the public appetite for this form of investment has steadily grown. Yet the process of putting together a share issue and of setting up the subsequent trading mechanisms remains haphazard and uncoordinated. Despite this, ethical businesses raising share capital have chose to make their own arrangements rather than list on the existing markets, which are too focused on financial and not enough on environmental and social returns.
There is then a need for a genuinely ethical exchange which is as supportive of the activities of an enterprise as it is of its profitability. With an increasing umber of social enterprises now raising capital through share and bond issues, this market would channel the nation’s appetite for direct ethical investment. The market would also open new horizons in ethical investment, presenting a direct challenge to the existing system and a benchmark for other markets to live up to.
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