Money Does Grow on Trees

Stanford lecturer and green investing entrepreneur Ian Monroe, ’03, MS ’04, was named a “Rising Star” by Institutional Investor for his work co-founding Etho Capital, an investment manager that offers sustainability-focused financial products, including the first fossil-fuel-free stock exchange-traded fund. The Etho ETF, comprising 400 U.S. stocks, aims to apply sustainability science to diversified public equity investing. “We’re showing that the most efficient and sustainable companies generally make the best investments,” says Monroe, who also teaches courses on energy, climate and sustainability in the earth systems program. Monroe says Etho’s ETF and index fund have more than doubled returns on the S&P 500 while reducing climate pollution, compared with the average investment, by more than 80 percent.