The Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley is starting what may be the first student-managed investment fund to focus on social and environmental responsibility.

According to Kelli McElhaney, adjunct professor and executive director of the Center for Responsible Business at the HaasSchool, there are three main goals for the fund. The first is to give students a unique learning opportunity. The second is to advance the current investment methodology by generating more knowledge for Wall Street about socially responsible investing by producing research from their fund’s performance. The third is to use returns as a fundraising vehicle for the Center for Responsible Business.

Plans are to raise a minimum of $1 million for the fund and any returns will help support the self-sustaining center.

McElhaney says there will initially be about five M.B.A.’s serving as portfolio analysts and managers, with the hope that the number will grow as the fund does. They will be responsible for researching companies, making investment recommendations, and monitoring the investments. There will also be two M.F.E. students who will run quantitative modeling and analysis, looking at portfolio optimization models. Haas faculty, alumni and a committee of investment professionals will be helping the students.

“We will invest in companies with both a strong record of social responsibility and financial performance,” says McElhaney. “We won’t sacrifice one for the other.”

She believes the experience will give students the skills they need to land jobs with funds that have a social responsibility focus.

“There have been a lot more SRI funds created in recent years, and I see an increasing number of job opportunities out there,” says McElhaney. “I hope I will be able to send more knowledgeable students into traditional Wall Street firms where they can raise social responsibility issues from inside the companies.”