Boston Gal's Open Wallet

Every now and then, I hear some news that pleases me so much, I don't care whether it's true. For example, red wine is good for us. Chocolate is, too. And now this: According to two Massachusetts sociologists, being single is better for the world than being married.

It's not just that singles conserve plastic bubble wrap and cardboard boxes by never registering for wedding gifts. It's that we're more community-oriented. While couples, especially childless ones, often focus on their marriage to the exclusion of other social ties, singles spread their energy over a broader sphere. Singles are more likely to help out friends and family. We are also more politically active and more helpful to our elderly parents than our married siblings. The study's authors conclude that while marriage may indeed offer important supports to the two people involved, it may not be the societal bedrock we've long imagined it to be.

My initial reaction was the sort of perverse delight that comes from finding a semi-scientific rationale for one's least admirable feelings. Lately, I've felt grumpy each time I get a wedding invitation, partly because of the anticipated expenses, but mostly because I know I'll have to smile like the third runner-up to Miss America each time someone assures me it will be my turn next. Until I read the study, I was ashamed of these feelings and considered myself a wretched, envious beast. Now, thanks to the study, the grumpiness seems justified.

While marriage has become more inwardly focused in recent years, weddings haven't followed suit. If anything, it seems more is asked of guests than ever before, like multiple gift-giving occasions and destination travel. Yet if the study can be believed, marriage no longer benefits guests personally by broadening our social circle or strengthening community ties, as it did for us once upon a time. When we give the cake platter or the cheese knife, it's no longer on the understanding that we'll be invited over to use it.

STOP HAND WASHING THE DISHES. Good news: Using the dishwasher is actually better for the planet than washing dishes by hand. The average energy-efficient dishwasher uses just 4 gallons per cycle, saving as much as 5,000 gallons of water per year compared with hand washing, as well as $40 in energy costs and 230 hours of washing time, according to the EPA.

And so, in 1983, Robinson, an investment banker, founded a mutual fund company in Boston, the Winslow Management Co., hoping to persuade clients to invest in environmentally responsible companies - not just out of good will, but to make money as well. "We were on the bleeding edge for about a decade," Robinson says. "It was a long haul. But we stuck with it and refined our approach and educated a lot of people on the subject."

The company, which in the early '90s managed $50 million to $75 million annually, now oversees about $500 million in assets, Robinson says, as investors have awakened to both the moral and financial benefits of green investing. Think Whole Foods, for example, a core holding in the Winslow fund for a dozen years. Then think about how much money you would have earned if you had invested in the grocery chain that sells organic and natural products in, say, 1992, when the share price was around three bucks. (Now it's in the mid-$40 range.) That's the genius of Jack Robinson. "He was a pioneer," says Katharine Preston of Essex, New York, an early and still-satisfied Winslow client. "He was a prophet before his time."