The annual survey reveals that 85 per cent of people planning to invest into an ISA before April’s deadline will consider using an ethical scheme for their allowance, up significantly from 67 per cent on last year’s figures.

According to Co-operative Insurance, these results reinforce the view that the upward trend in ethical investment is set to continue.

More than 75 per cent of people now believe that ethical investment can perform in line, if not better, than the mainstream markets and the annual Ethical Consumerism Report, from sister organisation Co-operative Bank, shows the amount held in ethical personal finance products grew 15 per cent year on year, from £11.6 billion to £13.3 billion.

Zack Hocking, head of ethical investments at Co-operative Insurance, says, ‘While ethical investment still represents a small amount of the overall market, evidence strongly suggests that growth is set to continue.

‘We expect to see significant interest from customers wanting to invest their ISA allowance ethically as the deadline approaches.’

The Co-operative Insurance ethical fund – CIS Sustainable Leaders Trust – has consistently outperformed mainstream trusts and can be used to fund an ISA. For the 36 months to 31 January 2008 it provided a total return of 40.5 per cent, against 35.2 per cent of the UK FTSE All-Share and the 27.7 per cent average return achieved by funds in the UK All Companies sector.

Mike Fox, fund manager of Sustainable Leaders Trust, added, ‘Ethical funds are demonstrating that responsible investing and high performance can go hand in hand.

‘The increasing importance of the environment, human welfare and sustainability in society means these funds should be well-positioned to deliver consistent performance in the long term.’