Green economic index trend grows

Nasdaq announced last week that it will launch a family of indexes to track the green economy. The OMX Green Economy Index will cover a variety of industries involved in the so-called green economy including energy efficiency, renewable energy and a variety of segments such as pollution mitigation, healthy living and recycling.

The index is comprised of 350 securities.

Four versions of the OMX Green Economy Index began calculating on September 22 at a base value of 1000.00. The versions are a Price Return (NASDAQ: QGREEN), Total Return (NASDAQ: QGREENX), a Capped Price Return (NASDAQ: QGREENCP4), and a Capped Total Return (NASDAQ: QGREENCP4X).

The new indexes are the latest in a trend that allows investors to track and invest in companies that are part of the clean-energy and sustainability trends in business.

In February, Deutsche Bank partnered with Nasdaq to launch the DB NASDAQ Clean Tech Index which tracks 119 companies.

Portland-based Clean Edge was an early participant in the move toward "clean" indexes with the launch of its Clean Energy Index in 2006.

Today, Clean Edge maintains three benchmark indexes focused on clean energy with Nasdaq. These include CELS (49 clean energy companies), QWND (30 global wind companies), and QGRD (33 smart grid and grid infrastructure firms.)

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