A new grassroots club has just taken flight in the Comox Valley.

The Responsible Investing Club provides a collaborative learning environment for the sharing of knowledge and skills with respect to responsible investing.

Responsible investing is the integration of environmental, social and governance factors into the selection and management of investments. The practice includes 鈥渆thical investing,鈥� 鈥済reen investing,鈥� and 鈥渧alues-based investing.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 time that Canadians start putting their money where their mouths are,鈥� says Dr. Jonathan Kerr, a family physician in Comox.

鈥淢any of us talk a good game about being environmentally friendly, while at the same time our RRSPs are invested in companies with poor environmental, ethical, and social practices.鈥�

The Responsible Investing Club will be exploring better ways to invest your savings, such as screening out companies that are involved with weapons manufacturing and tobacco.

鈥淩esponsible investing is highly individual,鈥� says Kerr. 鈥淪ome people want to invest in cutting-edge green technologies, while others simply want to make sure they are not investing in fossil fuels. This club will provide a forum to share opinions and learn from each other.鈥�

The Responsible Investing Club鈥檚 inaugural meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday April 14, in the upstairs meeting room at Quality Foods in Courtenay.

Anyone interested in attending, or wanting more information, is asked to RSVP by email to responsibleinvestingclub1@gmail.com.

The club鈥檚 monthly meetings are open to anyone in the Comox Valley who is interesting in learning more about responsible investing.

Responsible investing is experiencing rapid growth in Canada.

From 2012 to 2014, assets managed in Canada using one or more responsible investing strategies increased from $600 billion to more than $1 trillion, says the Canadian Responsible Investment Trends Report.

This robust growth represents a 68 per cent increase in responsible investment assets under management.