ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the continental European market, concentrating specifically on investment funds authorised for sale in German-speaking countries. The new insights brought about by recognised management concepts such as shareholder value or the stakeholder philosophy—often juxtaposed in public discussion as implacable opposites of one another—have encouraged a degree of reorientation in the content of new 'green' investment products in recent years. The main reason for this is the environmental funds' high allocation to small and medium-sized company stocks, a market segment that has not matched the price performance of large cap stocks. The widest range of green investment products, both in terms of content and investment category, is available to investors in German-speaking countries. One interesting development is that the investment content of ecological funds has become more complex as new economic players have entered the environmental debate.
