WHEN Leonardo DiCaprio starred in Blood Diamond, a film about the human cost of the trade in diamonds in Sierra Leone, protesters stepped up their campaigning outside the headquarters of the world's diamond companies.
But while those of us not in the market to buy diamond rings or earrings sympathised, the ethical debate seemed remote.
But increasingly consumers are being faced with the fact that every penny they have in a bank, or in a pension fund, could be
funding something which someone else regards as highly unethical – the arms trade, the tobacco industry or drug companies' animal experiments.
Yesterday The Scotsman revealed that Martin Currie, one of Scotland's major trust funds, had sold its £2.37 million of shares in the controversial mining company Vedanta after protests from Survival International that it was encroaching on tribal land.
But the problem for the majority of people who do not have the expertise or time to put their own investment portfolio together is that they have no idea which investments their fund is snaking its way towards.
Many are unaware there are "ethical investment" portfolio alternatives or are bamboozled by the explanations given by those running pension funds.
Earlier this week climate change campaign groups warned that high-street banks including the Royal Bank of Scotland could be boycotted if they continue channelling billions into coal-mining projects.
Duncan McLaren, the chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, which supports the anti-coal protest, said: "The single most important point is that knowing what you do as an individual in environmental terms, which most of us are aware of, can be dwarfed by where you choose to bank and invest your savings for retirement."
Mr McLaren said the ethical investment movement, which originated with the Quakers, has emerged into the mainstream, where fund managers put "engagement" with companies at the forefront.
The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) representing more than 390 institutions including the universities of Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow and St Andrews, as well as over 240,000 individuals, holds about £18 million worth of Vedanta shares.
But David Russell, co-head of responsible investment at USS, said: "USS is not permitted to make investment decisions on purely ethical or moral factors and we can only divest on the basis of material financial grounds. If USS considers that a company is not meeting appropriate corporate responsibility or governance standards, and that this is putting at risk the value of our investment, we will use our influence as owners to encourage the company to improve its practice."
But Mr McLaren describes this as "judgment at the margin. It shouldn't work that way".
One institution which has found itself on the crest of the ethical investment wave is Co-operative Investments, which describes itself as "a pioneer for responsible shareholding, and the only UK investment house to apply social responsibility analysis within its investment process across its entire portfolio."
Mark Super, a financial adviser with the Co-op, said: "Someone can come in with an inheritance and we show them precisely where their money is invested. We are proactive in monitoring these funds.
"People ask if they will make less money if their cash is ethically invested. The answer is definitely no. More companies are falling into line with ethical policies meaning there are more funds and less risk than in the last ten years. We used to be regarded as old-fashioned, but now we are surprised to be regarded as "trendy".
VEDANTAVedanta, a UK-based mining company owned by Anil Agarwal, is being targeted by protesters from Survival International, which protects the rights of tribal peoples.
Campaigners say the company's plans to mine aluminium ore from eastern India's Niyamgiri Mountain will devastate the "sacred" peak and displace 8,000 members of the Dongria Kondh tribe.
The campaign is attracting international attention and high-profile celebrities, such as Julie Christie, support its aims. The Norwegian government has withdrawn its investment from Vedanta on "moral" grounds.
Financial institutions, local councils, universities and investment trusts are now being targeted.
Martin Currie, a major Scottish trust fund, disinvested £2.37 million worth of shares at the end of July. It had been in contact with Survival International and cited "uncertainty" in the market as one of its reasons for withdrawing.
A Vedanta spokesman said the area in question was "pitiable" and would benefit from 4,000-5,000 jobs, a new hospital and schools. It claimed locals welcomed the project.
SHELLThe oil giant has been at the centre of a number of protest campaigns around the world, including in Nigeria, South Africa and Ireland. Protesters say their aim is to make the company an unattractive investment proposition.
In the 1990s tensions arose between the firm and the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta in Nigeria.
The locals claimed that very little of the money earned from oil on their land went to the people who lived there.
In 1993 the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People organised large protests against Shell and the government, often occupying the refineries. Shell withdrew its operations from the Ogoni areas and the Nigerian government raided their villages and arrested some of the protest leaders.
Some of the protesters, including the prominent writer and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, were executed on charges of inciting violence, despite widespread opposition from the Commonwealth.
In December 2003, Shell Nigeria acknowledged that "we sometimes feed conflict by the way we award contracts and gain access to land", and said it intended to improve its practices.
THE ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLANDTHE Royal Bank of Scotland and other high-street banks including HSBC and Barclays are facing the possibility of a wave of consumer boycotts.
Protesters say direct financial action will be taken if the banks continue to channel billions of pounds of new investment into coal projects.
Last weekend 50 climate change protesters were arrested at a protest against the building of a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent.
Campaigners say RBS is providing the financial means to build coal-fired power stations and dig new coal mines all over the world.
In a detailed report by environmentalists, RBS is accused of helping to provide an estimated £8bn to E.ON and other companies utilising coal over the past two years, with HSBC smaller amounts.
A spokesman for RBS defended the bank's corporate lending practices.
"We fund a balanced portfolio of generation assets. That covers a spectrum from being the biggest funder of renewable generation projects globally to also supporting the oil sector, which supports 300,000 jobs in the UK and our generation sector, on which the UK depends," he said.
PROCTER & GAMBLEHousehold goods producer Procter & Gamble is being targeted worldwide by activists urging a boycott of its products because some are tested on animals.
Protesters say they want to expose P&G's "callous abuse" and divert million of customers and investors to cruelty-free shopping in countries throughout the world.
Guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters, ferrets, rats and mice are among the thousands of animals poisoned and killed every year in P&G's "product safety research," and cats and dogs are used in experiments for their pet foods. P&G is very secretive about its toxicity tests, where chemicals are allegedly force-fed to animals, rubbed into their raw skin, or dripped into their eyes. Other tests include forcing animals to inhale chemicals or injecting substances up their noses. The campaign is supported by stars such as Sir Paul McCartney, Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde, poet and musician Benjamin Zephaniah, and singer Morrissey. P&G admits it conducts tests on animals to assess chemicals in its brands.However it says experiments are conducted humanely.
NESTLÉNestlé is one of the four most boycotted companies in the world, according to GMIPoll and the most boycotted in the UK.
Protesters have been campaigning for more than two decades over the company's promotion of commercially-produced baby milk in third world countries.
The company has been accused of sending nurses in white overalls out to remote villages, purporting to be medical staff, to persuade local women to buy an expensive product they cannot afford and prepare it using water and wood carried long distances.
Monitoring by the International Baby Food Action Network found Nestlé to be responsible for more violations of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent, relevant Resolutions of the Assembly than any other company. The action has spread to companies associated with Nestlé.
The Body Shop outlets in various towns in the UK have attracted protesters as it was taken over by L'Oreal, in which Nestlé has a stake. Nestlé deny the claims. saying they play a much-needed health and educational role.
DE BEERSDe Beers is one of a number of diamond companies which has attracted the wrath of protesters who say diamond companies have turned a blind eye to the trade in "conflict diamonds". Also known as "blood diamonds", they have fuelled wars in at least three African countries.
Protesters managed to attract the support of many in the creative and advertising industry who gave their time free of charge to produce glossy hard-hitting advertisements for television channels, magazines and newspapers.
Advertisements include a mock-up of a severed hand from an African woman wearing a diamond engagement ring on the third finger of her left hand. Some of these adverts have won awards.
In 2001 De Beers, the world's largest diamond producer, expressed fears that its business could suffer as a result of these stones finding their way into legitimate markets.
The company, which has been mining diamonds for more than 100 years and operates mines in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Tanzania, has issued statements saying all their diamonds are "conflict free".
