Green funds that really grow.(The Seattle Times)

SEATTLE _ Jon Naimon is no tree hugger. He won't chain himself to a redwood, ram his boat into a whaling vessel or join a World Trade Organization riot.

But Naimon is as green as they come, especially if an ecologically friendly investment produces the stuff that doesn't grow on trees.

"I am not an activist," says Naimon, the soft-spoken president of Seattle-based Light Green Advisors, which offers investment funds filled with ecologically responsible companies. "My job is to get a return for our investors."

Not so long ago, ecologically responsible investing foundered for one simple reason: It did not make money.

But not anymore. Today, green funds make up a growing share of socially responsible mutual funds, which are becoming increasingly lucrative for investors.

Investors poured nearly $3 trillion into socially screened portfolios last year, compared with $639 billion in 1995, according to the Social Investment Forum. Seventy-nine percent of such portfolios focus on companies' environmental records, up from 37 percent in 1997. Socially responsible funds have regularly outperformed established benchmarks like the Standard &

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