When Professor Ritchie Lowry (Boston College Sociology Department) first became involved in the socially responsible investment movement, he realized that the movement needed a way of responding to Wall Street's belief that social screening resulted in lower returns to investors. He decided to design a stock average that could be tracked against the traditional averages, and the easiest to do was a Dow Jones equivalent, since this is a simple average that only involves adjustments in the divisor when changes are made on the average.

Professor Lowry started by identifying 30 industrial companies (the same number as on the Dow Jones Industrial Average) that were favored by social investors. In so far as possible, he tried to find companies within the same industry categories that appeared on the DJIA. For many industries, socially acceptable alternatives could easily be found since some companies had obviously excellent records for such social issues as environmental protection, community involvement, or employee programs. This wasn't always possible (there is no such thing as a responsible nuclear weapons maker). If other industry choices were necessary for the GMIA, companies were chosen from industries that provided life-supportive products and services.

Since 1976, no companies on the GMIA have been replaced for performance reasons. Replacements are made for the same reasons that companies are replaced on the DJIA:

1. The company goes private.
2. The company is merged with another company that is not socially acceptable.
3. The company goes bankrupt.

Companies are also replaced on the GMIA when a company stubs its toes socially. (See: Companies Dropped From GOOD MONEY's Averages)

Professor Lowry was also able to easily find 15 publicly-traded utilities that had no involvement with nuclear power and/or were involved with cogeneration, conservation, and/or alternative and renewable energy. This GMUA was to be tracked against the Dow Jones Utility Average, which has consisted primarily of nuclear utilities and or coal/oil-fired utilities with bad environmental records. Professor Lowry also tried to construct a GOOD MONEY Transportation Average but was unable to find 20 publicly-traded transportation companies (the number that appear on the Dow Jones Transportation Average) with good social records.

One of the surprising findings in the above performance chart was that the GMUA outperformed both the Dow Jones Utility and Industrial Averages for a number of years.

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