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Climate change is affecting the market in significant ways. Since the consequences of business as usual will be catastrophic, many experts say that high-carbon technologies like dirty coal and low-mileage cars are becoming less attractive to investors.

At Experco Trade, we’ve experienced a very significant increase in interest in past couple of years in investments that support long-term environmental sustainability—specifically investments in green energy and energy efficiency,” he says. “Investors from both the progressive community focused on environmental improvement and from the mainstream are seeing immense opportunities available in this rapidly growing market..

Stock indexes make a great starting point for ideas on picking individual stocks that fit certain criteria—and there are some indexes that focus specifically on tracking companies involved directly in renewable energy or energy efficiency. While you can’t purchase an index, there are exchange traded funds (ETFs) available that are based directly on clean-tech indexes.

Market capitalization for the majority of the stocks in this index are generally $200 million and above, although the index does include a handful of stocks from some smaller companies with a market cap of $50 to $200 million. —The Powershares WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio (PBW) is an ETF based on this index.

The NASDAQ Clean Edge Green Energy Index (CELS) tracks stocks in the clean-energy sector. The companies included are involved in renewable energy generation, renewable fuels, energy storage and conversion, energy intelligence (e.g. smart-grid technologies).

The NASDAQ OMX Clean Edge Global Wind Energy Index (QWND) includes companies that are primarily involved in wind energy manufacture, development, distribution, installation, and use. Companies included must have a minimum market capitalization of $100 million. —The PowerShares Global Wind Energy Portfolio (PWND) is an ETF based on this index.