Are Alcohol Screens Outdated?

Jay Falk of Sustainability Investment News (Social Funds.com) has a March 27 post of an interview with Rob Frederick, director of corporate responsibility at Brown-Forman, which owns liquor brands like Jack Daniels, Finlandia and Southern Comfort. The full interview may be found here.

Frederick argues that alcohol companies can accept the responsibility to reduce the societal impacts of their products.

He takes the view that instead of screening out alcohol companies, investors should recognizethat some companies behave better than others. He also argues that alcohol is different from, say, tobacco, in this it is not inherently harmful for the great majority of consumers. "There are some people who should never drink and we have always been clear about that. For most, however, when enjoyed responsibly, our brands can enrich the experience of life."

I'll buy it, especially when the screening-out approach has hurt the relative performance of SRI funds vis-a-vis the S&P 500 or against the benchmark Vice Fund.