Investing in positive change became priority after tragedy

IT WAS the death of her partner Walter Wright from a brain tumour that prompted Jacqueline Reid to consider ethical investments.

The 50-year-old civil servant from Glasgow insists that her investments avoid companies involved in dirty, risky industries - believing that environmental factors could have played a part in her husband's death.

The money she invests in ethical-only firms was from Mr Wright's life insurance. She has put the money into one of the best-known "screened funds", the Sustainable Diversified Trust managed by Co-operative Asset Management.

This avoids controversial sectors such as nuclear energy or tobacco and focuses investments on businesses bringing about positive social and environmental change.

It is unclear what caused Mr Wright's tumour but in coping with it, and his death, Ms Reid has come across many studies linking tumours to toxins in what we eat and drink.

"We did a lot of research and one of the recurring causes cited was toxins in food and food chains," she said.

The BP oil spill was another factor in Ms Reid avoiding firms that cause pollution. She said: "We know the immediate consequences on fishing and tourism, but we don't know what will happen in the future. How safe will the Gulf ever be both for wildlife and as a source of food for humans?"