I was part of a panel discussion that addressed strategies for responsible international investing at last week's Green Mountain Summit on Investor Responsibility. Since the focus of the panel was on the challenges and opportunities of both the research and product side of the equation, I thought that an informal overview of current retail mutual fund offerings available to U.S. investors would be a valuable framing exercise.

As sources for the overview I used the U.S. Social Investment Forum (SIF) directory, Morningstar's socially responsible investing fund screener and the web sites of fund sponsors. I excluded alternate share classes when they existed and focused on funds available to U.S. investors that had global or international exposures, regardless of whether or not the exposure was explicitly part of the funds' investment objective.

The results of this exercise are summarized below. I found just 14 funds for responsible investors that had global/international exposure, 10 of which had explicit mandates for such exposure. I included three funds that are not branded as socially responsible investing (SRI) funds, but would appeal to responsible investors because of their emphasis on environmental factors.

Clearly, this section of the U.S. responsible investing market is underdeveloped and ripe for new entrants. What's driving future growth? Foreign markets dominate the rankings of top performing indexes year to date. Total international market capitalization continues to grow faster than U.S. market capitalization. Demand for global renewable or alternative energy products is fueling the mainstreaming of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment.

High expense ratios represent a hurdle for these 14 funds to outperform their benchmarks. Sponsors that can offer funds with low expenses and good sales distribution stand to grab a considerable market share. Look for the landscape of product offerings to U.S investors to undergo considerable change in the near to mid-term.