Ethical fund sales show 'green awareness'

Ms Brook, fund manager and co-founder of the company, said despite suffering the same fate as mainstream funds as markets crashed in recent years , ethical and socially responsible investment (SRI) funds had remained popular.

She said: "I suppose it shows the different sort of commitment and [investors are] thinking much more long term."

The fund manager said the sector had never been "faddish", adding that investors were likely to benefit from growth in the coming years.

Ms Brook said WHEB had identified three global crisis themes for its £17m WHEB Sustainability fund, including climate change, water shortage, and the ageing population.

The fund manager highlighted the troubles faced by BP following the explosion of its Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the subsequent pollution.

She said: "There are just so many problems sourcing fossil fuels. Extracting and exporting the stuff is so messy.

"Also, oil-producing nations are fairly volatile, our dependence on them has caused a number of wars and is linked with terrorist activity."

Ms Brook said countries would look to more sustainable fuel sources in the future to lessen reliance on oil.

According to SRI researcher Eiris, the £9.5bn of inflows into ethical and green retail funds represented approximately 750,000 investors in funds.

Mark Robertson, spokesperson at Eiris, said greater numbers of consumers were looking to invest in products that had a positive impact on the wider environment.

He said: "It's clear that increasing numbers of consumers are turning to those financial institutions which offer financial products that make money whilst making a positive difference to the world."

However, Ms Brook said it was important to differentiate between the different types of SRI and ethical products available.

She said funds focused on ethical and SRI strategies and that addressed future concerns were unlikely to be funds which held ethical FTSE 100 stocks only, given the number of oil, banking and mining companies that currently dominate the index.

She said: "One has to question the future of all those sectors. There is the potential question of where do you see the FTSE in 20 years' time?

"Is it going to look like it does now and if it doesn't what will it look like?"