| Weekly News Round-Up: July 27th, 2018 |
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Below please find this week's news round-up.
Be sure to review IEN's new Briefing Paper on Options for Endowment Investment in Solar Energy, which focuses on how to most effectively enable endowments to make investments in solar projects and the solar energy market as a whole.
In case you missed it, a recording of yesterday's webinar on Barnard College's Divestment from Climate Science Deniers is available on our website.
Additionally, if your institution has plans to announce a fossil fuel divestment commitment, please look into this opportunity to participate in a global press event being organized by the Divest-Invest Network around the Global Climate Action Summit in September.
Have a great weekend,
Nicole
Program Manager
The Intentional Endowments Network
  
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| New Resources |
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Briefing Paper: Options for Endowment Investment in Solar Energy l The Intentional Endowments Network
- This briefing paper focuses on solar energy and how to most effectively enable endowments to make investments in solar projects, and the solar energy market as a whole. It provides guidance on three main approaches endowments can utilize to invest in solar: allocating capital across traditional asset classes in the investment portfolio, sponsoring a project by investing funds for its development, and allocating capital to a campus green revolving fund.
Update on Barnard College's Approach to Divestment l Barnard College
- This updated page includes overviews of the 30 companies evaluated in Barnard's assessment of companies that deny climate science, FFI’s divestment and climate action executive summary and fossil fuel divestment and climate action methodology, and case studies showing how three anonymized fossil fuel companies scored against criteria.
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| Opportunities for Action |
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Scholarship Opportunity to Attend Global Climate Action Summit l Youth Step Up
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This contest, organized by Our Climate, invites young people from across the U.S. to submit their ideas for bold solutions to combat climate change via a creative project and essay. Winners will receive prizes of up to $5,000 and an all-expenses-paid trip to attend the summit in San Francisco on September 12-14, 2018. The goal of the contest is to engage young people from across the U.S. in international climate discussions and accelerate even greater levels of youth action on climate solutions. Submissions are due August 3.
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| Sustainable Investing at Endowments |
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University of Manchester Signs up to UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment l Manchester Newsroom
- The University of Manchester has signed up for PRI, becoming the first English Russell Group University to join the organization. Stephen Dauncey, Director of Finance, said: “Our Revised Policy for Socially Responsible Investment has been in place for just over 12 months now and during that time we have made significant progress with our Investment Managers to allow us to pursue a sustainable approach to investment without compromising our investment returns. Subscribing to the PRI’s principles is the next step for us to show our commitment to our third goal of social responsibility.”
Northwest School Moving Toward Socially Responsible Investing l Capitol Hill Times
- This article discusses how the Northwest School has recently announced plans to fully transition its $10.4 million endowment to socially and environmentally responsible funds.
Queens’ College, Cambridge Launches ETF Portfolio as Part of Carbon Divestment Strategy l ETF Strategy
- Queens’ College, Cambridge has allocated part of its £55m global equity investment exposure to a self-managed portfolio constructed using equity sector ETFs, specifically to exclude extractive and carbon-intensive industries. The move is part of a package of measures developed by specialist consultant ElstonETF to enable Queens’ to respond to the concerns of the carbon divestment lobby without losing sight of primary investment objectives.
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| Sustainable, Responsible, Impact & ESG Investing |
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Bloomberg Brief l Sustainable Investing
- This week's Bloomberg Brief highlights how market regulators around the world are increasingly providing incentives to grow the green bond market; City climate change suits against fossil fuel companies get another blow and spark a warning to companies; Trump administration targets California's tailpipe rules; and the poor don't deserve toxic dumps in their backyard, writes Bloomberg Opinion's Noah Smith.
The New NAACP Fund Shows ESG ETFs Are Evolving l benzinga
- As more investors consider ESG strategies, fund issuers are bringing new spins on responsible investing to market. The Impact Shares NAACP Minority Empowerment ETF, was launched in partnership between Impact Shares, the first ETF provider structured as a non-profit entity; and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The new ETF follows the Morningstar Minority Empowerment Index, which provides exposure to U.S. companies that stand out for their commitment to racial and ethnic diversity.
The Next Step in Impact Investing: Breaking the Shackles of Extractive Thinking l Stanford Social Innovation Review
- This article argues that as impact investing matures, it’s worth asking: Can we finance mission-driven enterprises in a way that shifts the core emphasis to regenerative environmental and social benefits?
5 ESG ETFs Outperforming the Broader Market l NASDAQ
- In past three months, several ESG ETFs beat the S&P 500 (up about 5.6%). Investors should note that past three months were all about trade war tensions, mainly between the United States and China and between the United States and several of its key trading partners on a broader sense. This article highlights some of the outperforming ESG funds in the three-month period.
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