Green stocks allow you to be part of the solution. As part owners of corporations that are working to better the planet, you can both contribute to and profit from a healthier world. It's not all about global warming, either, but also about preserving and protecting our natural resources, keeping our water clean, making sure the rain forests aren't completely razed, and that millions of species don't die out. Companies can help achieve this change in positive ways by developing safer, cleaner technologies, or by providing alternatives to environmentally destructive products. They can also impact the environment in less negative ways, like cutting back on toxic waste dumping and emissions or creating products out of recycled or recyclable materials.

Many of these pure play (singly focused) corporations trade on the major exchanges. While some of these cutting edge companies are considered start-ups, they need to have substantial funds and plenty of outstanding shares to be listed.

In addition to the standard information you should gather about any security you want to invest in, green investments call for a bit more scrutiny. This is especially true of companies claiming to have new planet-saving technologies in their pipelines. Before you put your money into any so-called green corporation, consider the following questions:

• Does the corporation have an actual product or is everything still in the conceptual stages?

• Is there a reasonable time frame set for development and testing?

• Is there a defined niche market that the company plans to penetrate?

• Does the company talk about how it expects its product to evolve?

• Does the corporation talk in specifics (target markets, real-world applications) or generalities?

• How do the corporation's ideas and technologies stack up against others in the industry?

If the materials you're privy to don't spell out the answers to most of these questions, you may want to consider putting your greenbacks somewhere else.