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Editorial Changes at Eco InvestorWith this edition, Eco Investor is changing its editorial focus to concentrate on Australian environmental equities. This includes core, pre-dividend, pre-profit, pre-revenue and unlisted securities. There are two reasons for the change. Until now Eco Investor has endeavoured to cover the range of environmental investments and asset classes including property, fixed interest, and international equities. But so much is now happening with these sectors that even covering just the main trends is not feasible. The green property asset class has grown spectacularly since Eco Investor commenced in 2005. Developments are now underway across all types of properties from suburban apartments and houses, urban planning and green infrastructure to rural properties and land care, national parks and nature corridors, control of weeds and feral animals, and protection of native wildlife and landscapes. It is wonderful for environmentalists and environmental investors that so much is happening in this asset class. But it also means that covering even just the main trends let alone the details is beyond a small publication like Eco Investor. Fixed interest has been the slowest asset class to offer environmentally positive investment options. In the past few years the green bond market and particularly the issue of international clean energy and climate related bonds has taken off in a dramatic way, but it is likely to be some years before there is a good range of choice open to the Australian retail investor. Fixed interest is a very different asset class to property and equities and the serious fixed interest investor like the serious property investor needs more coverage than Eco Investor can realistically provide. International green equities has always been a large sector, huge compared to the Australian sector, and beyond our resources to cover widely let alone fully. However, we will continue to cover Australian based international funds and companies, and we may still from time to time include other stories about international equities, particularly as they affect Australian equities. Along with the growth of these sectors, the second reason we are refocusing is that there has also been good growth in the number of other publications covering these asset classes. When I started Eco Investor in 2005, I did a wide ranging national and international internet search and found only a handful of publications that were covering environmental investment and environment related business. That has changed dramatically and there are now a huge number of sources, some free, some by subscription. In those early days Eco Investor tried to fill the gap with a wider editorial sweep that also included News and The Future column on research, both of which were dropped in 2010 when we refocused as a purely investment related publication. So this is not our first refocus. With both changes, the trend, as with the wider world, has been to greater specialization. Australian green equities have always been Eco Investor's core skill, and we will continue to provide the most comprehensive coverage available of local environmental equities. In line with our policy from day one and my 15 years of reporting on the venture capital sector, this will continue to include unlisted companies and their commercialization of new technologies and business ideas. Eco Investor's niche in the publishing and financial services sectors is providing news, research and commentary that can help investors, especially small to medium sized investors, interested in Australian listed and unlisted environmental equities. It's a worthwhile mission in a technologically, financially and ethically exciting area. As always, reader feedback on these changes and other issues is welcome.
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