Despite frequent surveys emphasising the importance of CSR in a downturn (for instance, OgilvyEarth’s survey on CSR commitment was covered here last week), it seems that funds investing in companies most committed to ethical and social issues are underperforming the market.

Investment Life & Pensions Moneyfacts compared the performance of ethical funds, conventional non-ethical funds, index trackers and the FTSE 100 over the past ten years. The research shows that the average ethical fund has dropped 16.74% in the 12 months to 1 July 2009, while non-ethical funds fell by 12.3%.