Are you concerned that the companies in which you invest may be harming the environment?

Some wealthy investors are trying to avoid holding stocks of companies that distribute fossil fuels, and the Rockefeller family is following suit, at least for its $860 million charitable fund, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

It is very unlikely that the institutions following this trend — with investment assets of about $50 billion — will have much of an effect on the major energy companies, which fill a critical role all over the world. But the idea is that they can have an influence on the debate over global warming and fossil-fuel use by taking their money elsewhere.

Some of those investors also believe fossil-fuel companies may be risky investments in the long run as governments seek ever-lower carbon dioxide emissions and the rapid development of alternative energy.

It’s ironic that the Rockefellers are making this move, considering that John D. Rockefeller made the family fortune by co-founding Standard Oil in 1870. The Supreme Court ruled in 1911 that Standard Oil had to be broken up because it was a monopoly. Many of the 34 newly created companies have since merged, with Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM, -3.11% and Chevron Corp. CVX, -3.42% as the big survivors.

One way you can follow the lead of the Rockefeller fund is to invest in a “socially responsible” mutual fund or exchange traded fund, and we have provided two lists of these funds below. Of course, “socially responsible” is a subjective term. It’s likely the managers of the Rockefeller fund and most of the “715 individuals and institutions [who] have pledged to invest in clean energy solutions,” discussed by Arabella Advisors in a recent press release, are still contributing to fossil-fuel companies by driving luxury cars, riding in limousines or on yachts, taking cruises, flying in their private jets, or consuming high-end goods transported by rail, truck or ship.

“It’s wrong to call a fund ‘socially responsible,’ because it implies everyone else is socially irresponsible,” says my MarketWatch colleague Chuck Jaffe, who prefers to call this investment style “agenda-driven investing.”

And the agendas may not only be altruistic. In addition to ethical concerns over environmental damage, an investor might wish to steer clear of companies that face increased regulatory or litigation risk in the event of an accident or change in policy.

Morningstar provided a list of “socially conscious” open-ended mutual funds whose main “ethical issue strategy focus” is environmental. Here are the 10 that are rated three stars or higher, per Morningstar’s five-star ratings system, sorted by average annual total return over the past five years, through August:

Open-ended mutual funds with an ‘environmental’ focus

In comparison, the benchmark S&P 500 Index SPX, -1.74% returned 10% for the first eight months of the year, with an average five-year total return of 24%. None of the funds matched that five-year performance.

Here are 10 exchange traded funds with the same “environmental” focus that have performed best over the past five years:

ETFs with an ‘environmental’ focus