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Bella Alvarez published Weekly News Round-Up: November 17, 2022 in Weekly News Round-Ups 2022-11-28 14:46:46 -0500
Weekly News Round-Up: November 17, 2022
Remember to register for our next Learning Cafe with ValuesAdvisor to learn about the vetted database of values-aligned financial advisors that makes it easy for endowments to invest with impact.
In this week’s news, Virginia Union University’s board of trustees updated its endowment policy, requiring 60% of its portfolio to be managed by minority firms. The University of Barcelona will mandate a course on climate change for students, and the Oregon treasurer will map out a plan for net zero emissions.
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Bella Alvarez published Weekly News Round-Up: November 10, 2022 in Weekly News Round-Ups 2022-11-28 14:44:48 -0500
Weekly News Round-Up: November 10, 2022
Our focus this week is on COP27, as world leaders are coming together in Egypt to collectively take action towards achieving world climate goals. Join us at the 2023 Higher Education Climate Leader Summit on Feb 5 - 7 at the University of Miami, FL, to further integrate the COP27 conversations with a selected group of higher education leaders into your investment process. Learn more about the 2023 Summit and sponsorship opportunities here.
In this week’s news, UTAM achieves divestment from direct holdings in fossil fuels, the UK unveils a disclosure framework for net zero transition plans, and Mexico raises its decarbonization targets for the first time since 2016.
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Bella Alvarez published Weekly News Round-Up: November 3, 2022 in Weekly News Round-Ups 2022-11-28 14:43:12 -0500
Weekly News Round-Up: November 3, 2022
During this Native American Heritage Month, we recognize indigenous and native communities and keep them top of mind as we plan our 2023 Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit. Help us incorporate indigenous perspectives and needs into our programming by responding to our call for content.
We also invite you to take advantage of our 2023 Summit early-bird registration before it closes, and invite IEN members to register for our upcoming Member Only quarterly calls to take a deep dive into topical conversations tailored to members' institutional and individual needs. Please contact Harrison Ungar at [email protected] for event sponsorship opportunities.
In this week’s news, Oberlin College divests from fossil fuels, the SEC adopts a proxy-voting disclosure rule and the Governor of North Carolina announces a diversity commission for the UNC system.
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Bella Alvarez published Weekly News Round-Up: October 27, 2022 in Weekly News Round-Ups 2022-11-28 14:41:23 -0500
Weekly News Round-Up: October 27, 2022
We were thrilled to learn of U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver’s proposed amendment to the Higher Education Act this week. It would mandate reporting on the gender and race data of ownership and management within the asset management firms that oversee college endowments. The amendment builds off of his previous work pushing for greater diversity data from universities.
Don’t forget that registration is open for our 2023 Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit, and sponsorship opportunities are available! For more information on sponsorship, contact Harrison Ungar at [email protected]
In this week’s news, the UK hits a milestone with 100 universities divested from fossil fuel companies, the Chicago Public School Teachers’ Pension & Retirement Fund pledges to divest, and the ISSB mandates Scope 3 emissions in GHG disclosures.
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Bella Alvarez published Weekly News Roundup: October 20, 2022 in Weekly News Round-Ups 2022-11-28 14:39:07 -0500
Weekly News Roundup: October 20, 2022
Registration is open for our 2023 Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit, and partnership opportunities are available! You can view an overview of partnership information in the sponsor brochure. Please contact Harrison Ungar at [email protected] if you’d like more information on sponsoring the Summit.
The sign-up form is still open for the Student Corporate Engagement Challenge! Participating students will receive a variety of benefits, including building their professional networks and learning from leaders in the sustainable investing field through mentorship and exclusive workshops.
In this week’s news, investors can sign on to the 2022 Global Investor Statement, Barclays and Oxford University announce a 3-year partnership, and Schwab Asset Management pilots a proxy voting polling platform.
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Bella Alvarez published Sustainable Retirements Initiative Quarterly Call 12/15/22 in Past Webinars 2022-11-22 13:35:31 -0500
Sustainable Retirements Initiative Quarterly Call 12/15/22
Unpacking the DOL rule: “Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights”
December 15, 2022The Biden Administration's Department of Labor (DOL) has released its new rule on ESG investing in retirement plans - clarifying that ESG factors can be considered financially material in investment selection and that sustainable funds can be used as the default investments on plan menus.
This interactive meeting included brief presentations from legal and investment experts sharing their views on the rule, with time for questions and dialogue amongst the group.
To learn more about this initiative, please contact Chris Walker at [email protected]
Recording:
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Learning Café with ValuesAdvisor
Date: November 29, 2022
Time: 12 PM ET
Recent announcements from universities like Princeton, San Francisco State University, and Coventry University demonstrate the ways higher education institutions are taking action and moving investments to better align with their values.
A critical first step to implementing a values aligned investment strategy is to find the right financial advisor who can integrate both your mission and financial goals into a successful investment strategy. 73% of investors say that the most important quality when selecting an advisor is “depth of direct impact investment knowledge and experience” (TIAA). Yet despite this interest, 40% of investors say the main challenge to increasing their allocation to impact is “difficulty sourcing credible investment advice” (Rockefeller Foundation).
IEN has partnered with ValuesAdvisor to help members overcome these challenges. ValuesAdvisor is a platform that aggregates information from the sustainable investing field to create a searchable list of the top financial advisors who deliver both financial and environmental/social returns.
Lisa Renstrom, Co-Founder and Head of Partnerships at ValuesAdvisor, and Kate Simpson, Co-Founder & Director of Advisor Outreach at ValuesAdvisor, took a deeper dive into the platform and gave participants the chance to questions and plan next steps at your institution.
Speakers:
Kate Simpson, Co-Founder and Director of Advisor Outreach
Lisa Renstrom, Co-Founder and Head of Partnerships
You can learn more about the platform, the other groups it’s partnered with for added exposure for your firm, criteria and associated fees here.
You can view a brief infographic on accessing the platform here.
To learn more, please reach out to Kate Simpson, Head of Advisor Outreach: [email protected].
Recording
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Bella Alvarez published [MEMBER ONLY] JEDI Working Group Quarterly Call 12/13/22 | 1 - 2:30 PM ET in Past Webinars 2022-11-02 12:42:51 -0400
[MEMBER ONLY] JEDI Working Group Quarterly Call 12/13/22 | 1 - 2:30 PM ET
This Q4 JEDI working group call furthered IEN members' education on, and advocacy for endowments to include JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) throughout the investment processes. College and university endowment assets collectively total more than $821 billion. However, determining how much of those assets are managed by diverse-owned firms is challenging, as a majority of the 50 wealthiest U.S. colleges and universities decline to share data.
House of Representative Emanuel Cleaver II gave his remarks on his pending “Endowment Transparency Act of 2022” and actions university endowments and like-minded foundations can take as a group to move towards effective allocation of capital for ESG and diverse managers.
Meet the Speaker:
To ensure you receive JEDI updates and announcements from IEN, please sign-up for our DEI listserv here
Join us on February 5-7, 2023 at the University of Miami for the Annual Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit
Recording:
https://youtu.be/--MsHmtSssw
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Bella Alvarez published Summer 2022 Newsletter in Quarterly IEN Newsletter 2022-10-31 11:41:53 -0400
Summer 2022 Newsletter
As record-breaking temperatures extend across the world, the urgency of our climate emergency and the prescient warnings from the scientific community feel ever more dire. IEN is continuing to work with institutional investors to push for systems-level change for a more sustainable future, and are looking forward to accelerating action at our upcoming Roundtable at the Nest Summit in NYC on September 22. Registration is now open, and we’re looking forward to joining many of you for intimate dialogue and catalytic conversations.
We also invite you to save the date for our 2023 Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit, which will be in-person at the University of Miami on February 5-7. Please respond to our Call for Content to inform our program design -- we appreciate your thoughts and the time it takes to share them!
Warm Regards,
The IEN Team
Spotlight: Warren Wilson College: Impacting How Companies Do Business Launched last week, the Briefing Paper: Warren Wilson College, Impacting How Companies Do Business , details how, through partnerships with IEN and As You Sow, Warren Wilson College (WWC) has influenced companies’ actions through proxy voting and shareholder resolutions.
During the 2021-2022 engagement season, WWC signed 32 letters of authorization allowing As You Sow to enter into dialogue and submit shareholder resolutions to companies WWC invested in. Of those 32 signed letters of authorization to engage, dialogue with over 80% of companies led to impactful agreements that addressed the resolution request sufficiently.
WWC has also influenced the actions of companies through proxy voting. From March 2021 through January 2022, 13,000 proxy ballot line items were voted on WWC’s behalf at approximately 1,200 companies, including 420 shareholder proposed ballot items.
Colleges and universities across the country can learn valuable insights from the process WWC has developed and followed to engage with the companies in their endowment investment portfolio through proxy voting and shareholder resolutions.
Spotlight: 2022 Climate Week NYC: Roundtable at the Nest Summit The Nest Summit, a part of Climate Week NYC, will take place on September 21-22, 2022 and gather the leading organizations in the climate solutions movement.
IEN’s Roundtable on September 22rd from 1:30 PM to 5:30 PM ET will be a dynamic, interactive set of conversations on mission-aligned investing, ESG options in retirement plans, Net Zero Portfolios, JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) in the investment process and more.
Please note that attendees will also need to register for the Nest Summit, which can be done for free below:
Updates from the Network New IEN Members We're pleased to welcome the following members to the network:
- Third Culture Capital
- Fiducient Advisors
- VegTech™ Invest Management Advisory
- CornerStone Partners
- ReThink Education
- First Peoples Worldwide
- Tobacco Free Portfolios
- Regenerative Food Systems Investment
To learn more about the benefits of membership, click here.
IEN Team News IEN is thrilled to welcome our Sustainable Investing Program Manager, Climate Justice & Events, Aicha Ly! Aicha is a recent Eastern Connecticut State University graduate, where she majored in political science and government. Aicha brings her extensive event programming experience to the Network, and will also support our Net Zero Endowments Initiative.
We also named two new senior fellows, Dorien Nuñez and Garrett Ashley. Dorien (left) is the Co-Founder and Director of Research, The OMNIResearch Group, and Co-Founder of the ‘OMNI Wall Street Advantage’. Garrett (right) is the Vice Chancellor Emeritus of the California State University System. We’re looking forward to contributions both will bring to the network by way of their unique experiences and perspectives.
Additionally, we extend a warm thank you to our summer sustainable investing intern, Lisa Su. Lisa is studying at Boston College in the class of 2025 and is from the greater Chicagoland area. She’s currently pursuing a degree in finance and business analytics with a minor in philosophy. Thank you for your contributions to the team, Lisa!
Recent Webinars IEN Members can access the following recent webinars through our member-only archive:
- IEN Learning Cafe with MSCI | August 22, 2022, 12 PM ET
- IEN Learning Cafe with Southern Reconstruction Fund | August 8, 2022, 12 PM ET
- Decarbonizing our Maritime Industry and the Global Supply Chain | July 26, 2022
- The Power of Intersectionality in the Endowment and the Urgency of JEDI & Racial Equity Investing | July 13, 2022
- Overcoming Unconscious (and conscious) Bias in the Asset Management Industry: A Juneteenth Season Discussion | June 30, 2022
- Investing for Impact in the Food System: Philanthropic, Private & Public Markets Strategies | April 29, 2022
Upcoming Events Please join us for our upcoming IEN events:
- Intentional Endowments Network Roundtable at the Nest Summit | September 22, 2022
- Workshop: Unconscious Bias in Hiring and Belonging | October 6, 2022
- 2023 Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit | February 5-7, 2022
Other Events
- AASHE Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education | AASHE, Oct. 26 & Nov. 3 - Virtual
- Dickinson College Science-Based Choices for Climate Action: Insights From the IPCC 6TH Assessment Report | October 24 – 26, 2022
- Annual HRLF Panel on Diversity + Equity + Inclusion + Belonging | HR Leadership Forum
IEN's Focus Areas SIILK (Sustainable & Impact Investing Learning & Knowledge) Network We’re thrilled to share that this spring we announced the winners of our 2022 Student Corporate Engagement Challenge! Student teams from Bard College and Virginia Wesleyan University are our graduate and undergraduate winners, respectively.
And now is the time to indicate your interest in participating in the 2023 Student Corporate Engagement Challenge! Participating students will receive a variety of benefits, including access to mentorship and networking opportunities, free and discounted registration to educational workshops and industry events, presentation opportunities, and multimedia interview opportunities.We are also looking for sustainable finance professionals to serve as mentors to students participating in this year's Challenge. Mentors will guide student teams as they develop their investment recommendations and shareholder engagement strategies. If you are a sustainable investing professional, we want you to volunteer to mentor a student team.
Indicate your interest to compete or mentor a student team here.
To connect on the Challenge or additional ways to be a part of our work supporting sustainable investing education through SIILK, reach out to Nicole at [email protected]
Supported by
Sustainable Retirements: ESG Options for Retirement Plans As part of IEN’s Sustainable Retirements Initiative, we launched our Guide to Sustainable Retirements. This guide is designed to provide practical information relevant to plan sponsors, human resources and finance officers and personnel, advocates, employees, investment advisors, legal scholars, and others. It aims to address misconceptions related to the use of ESG funds in retirement plans. In addition, this guide contains modules on financial performance and fiduciary duty concerns, a how-to guide for plan sponsors evaluating the addition of ESG funds to retirement plans, and steps outlining how to advocate for ESG integration in retirement plans.
The Sustainable Retirements Initiative was also the focal point of a recent panel the Intentional Endowments Network had at GreenFin 2022, entitled “Aligning Retirement Funds With ESG Goals.” The panel, moderated by Georges Dyer and featuring Marina Severinovsky from Schroders, Eric Pitt from Ceres, and Danielle Fugere from As You Sow as speakers, explored how groups like IEN are working to encourage retirement plans to adopt options that will support the transition to a regenerative economy.
Read the full Guide here.
Sustainable Retirement News:
- Finding ourselves in the ESG avocado: Schroders
- Starting ground for a Just Transition: Schroders
- Why ESG funds are used haphazardly in 401(k): Investment News
Supported by
Net Zero Endowments In July, we hosted a webinar with IEN Member EnTrust Global and with Purus Marine focusing on the role the maritime industry has in decarbonizing the global supply chain. Members can view the recording here, and you can watch a short highlight reel on our LinkedIn. In August, we hosted a “Learning Cafe” with MSCI, exploring the concepts and methodologies investors can use in tracking progress toward zero carbon emissions, such as Implied Temperature Rise and Carbon Value At Risk.
IEN’s Net Zero Steering Committee meets monthly to advance this initiative, and in recent meetings heard guest presentations from the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), FFI Solutions, and Ninety One.
It was encouraging to see a number of net-zero commitments made in the past few months from asset managers like AllianceBernstein. In addition, a number of asset owners have announced their divestment from fossil fuels, including Rose Bruford College, The University of Northampton, and the Presbyterian Church USA, who divested from 5 fossil fuel companies.
The meaningful progress we’ve seen in this space in the recent months and years is encouraging, and we’ll look to push these commitments forward through our Climate Justice & Net Zero Portfolios panel at our Nest Summit roundtable.
Supported by
Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) This summer has been a busy one for our JEDI Initiative! Thanks to the guidance of our new Director of JEDI, Paris Prince, we’ve had the opportunity to host a three-part series on unconscious bias. The first webinar in this series provided an overview of unconscious bias in the asset management industry against a backdrop of Juneteenth season discussions. The second focused on racial equity investing and the power of intersectionality in the endowment, while the third will be a workshop focused on unconscious bias in the hiring process and employee belonging.
We also enjoyed a learning cafe, the first of its kind for the Intentional Endowments Network, with the Southern Reconstruction Fund! Founder Dorian Burton and senior adviser Theresa Zawacki shared the work SRF is doing to lay the foundations for a restorative economy, especially in the South.
Supported by
Investment Governance Working Group IEN’s Investment Governance Initiative supports endowment fiduciaries in developing the tools needed to provide the leadership, stewardship, and governance to ensure their portfolios and institutions are positioned to have their investment practices reflect their mission while meeting the endowment’s risk and return objectives.
Members of the Investment Governance Initiative undertake and enable peer-to-peer connections among endowment trustees.
The group meets quarterly to hear case studies and expert presentations, network with peers and share best practices, covering a number of topical discussions from how to engage with endowment decision makers to implementing best practices in investment governance with asset managers and allocators and integrating justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion and climate solutions.
Shareholder Engagement In July, we hosted a learning session on As You Vote, a new ESG aligned proxy voting service which was created to streamline the process of proxy voting along ESG guidelines for endowments. As You Sow shared an overview of the service and examples of the impact you can make by proxy voting, and Warren Wilson College and Arizona State University also shared their experience utilizing the service.
Additionally, be sure to check out our new Briefing Paper: Warren Wilson College, Impacting How Companies Do Business, which details how, through partnerships with IEN and As You Sow, Warren Wilson College has influenced companies’ actions
If you have interest in getting involved in our shareholder engagement work, reach out to [email protected]
Featured Resources Resources from IEN Below are some recent resources from the Intentional Endowments Network and other organizations. To see more reports, articles, videos and other resources by topic, visit the resource page on our website.
From IEN’s Blog:
Endowment Sustainable Investing Reports:
Other Resources from the Field Other Resources from the field:
- Net Zero Blueprint | FFI Solutions
- Climate Report 2021: The race to zero | Stewart Investors
- 2022 Climate Risk Scorecard | Ceres
- Investor Guidance for Prioritizing Gender | Boston Common Asset Management
- Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance Position Paper on Governmental Carbon Pricing | United Nations Environment – Finance Initiative
- Exchanges Carrying 3 Times More Carbon Reserves than Can Be Burned Under Paris | Carbon Tracker
- The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022 | UN
In the News IEN in the News Below is a sampling of recent news articles we've posted in our Weekly News Round-Up, ranging in topics from Sustainable, Impact and ESG Investing, Climate Risk, Science & Regulation, Sustainability in Higher Education, Divestment, Clean Energy, and more. To receive news updates directly in your inbox every Friday, manage your mailing preferences here.
IEN in the News:
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University of Illinois Finds Diversification, ESG Progress in Farmland | Fundfire, June 2022
- Most US Investors Still Have ESG-Performance Fears: Survey | Fundfire, July 2022
Read more coverage of the network here
Recent Announcements About Higher Education Endowments Aligning Their Investments with Institutional Goals Other News:
Read coverage of recent announcements by endowments and other asset owners about their progress:
- University of Northampton: The University of Northampton is the 95th UK university to divest of fossil fuels and has updated its responsible investment policy to exclude fossil fuel companies from its portfolio and to require investment managers to consider “protection of the global environment, its climate and its biodiversity.”
- Northwestern University: Northwestern University has unveiled climate change investment guidelines that will push the institution to divest from companies with poor practices related to “greenhouse gas emissions, energy production or climate change information and research.” The new guidelines will also push the university to compile the endowment’s footprint and work to reduce that footprint by engaging with external managers.
- Rockefeller Foundation: Following a pledge to divest its $6B endowment from fossil fuels in 2020, the Rockefeller Foundation will now make climate change central to its programmatic, operational, and investment strategies. The foundation will develop a strategy reflecting the new changes within the year, focusing on action between 2025 and 2030.
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As the concept of using ESG factors in the investment process has come under fire from partisan political attacks, there have been many strong responses in defense of using this data in investment decision making:
- The backlash to climate-smart investing in the U.S. is based on a blatant lie by Mindy Lubber, Ceres
- No Such Thing as “ESG Investing” by Erika Karp, Pathstone
- In defence of ESG: A response to The Economist by Hugh Wheelan, Responsible Investor
- Americans Want to See Greater Transparency on ESG Issues and View Federal Requirements as a Key Lever for Increasing Disclosure by Jennifer Tonti, Just Capital
- Cutting Through the Nonsense Around ESG by Jon Hale, Morningstar
Received this email as a forward from a colleague? Subscribe to IEN's news updates here.
If you have an original piece you would like to submit for an upcoming newsletter, or for more information about the Intentional Endowments Network and how you can support this work, please contact Sorelle Ngatchou at [email protected].
View past issues of IEN’s weekly news summary online here.
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Geri Melchiorre
Geri Melchiorre, Senior Director of Investments, University of Illinois System
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Kunle Apampa
Kunle Apampa, Head of Client Solutions & Partnerships, Capricorn Investment Group
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Bella Alvarez published [MEMBER ONLY] SIILK Initiative Quarterly Call 11/10/22 in Past IEN Events 2022-10-28 09:37:43 -0400
[MEMBER ONLY] SIILK Initiative Quarterly Call 11/10/22
The Sustainable & Impact Investing Learning & Knowledge (SIILK) Network was formed at the convergence of several conversations within and beyond the Intentional Endowments Network (IEN) around the growing interest in student-managed investment funds (SMIFs) pursuing sustainable investing strategies, as well as the development of sustainable investing focused curriculum.
SIILK has three main goals: (1) scale the uptake of sustainable investing education, including courses and experiential education opportunities like SMIFs, (2) support SMIFs as they work to build stronger bridges between their SMIF and their institution’s broader endowment, and (3) increase the diversity and number of students that are entering the sustainable investing field.
This call was open to members only. For more information, please visit SIILKnetwork.org or contact Nicole Torrico at [email protected]
Recording:
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Bella Alvarez published [MEMBER ONLY] Net Zero Portfolios Initiative Quarterly Call 12/01/22 in Past Webinars 2022-10-28 06:51:55 -0400
[MEMBER ONLY] Net Zero Portfolios Initiative Quarterly Call 12/01/22
Social equity is central to the need to address the climate crisis. Marginalized communities, disproportionately Communities of Color, are often the most vulnerable to climate impacts. To ensure an equitable and just transition, climate solutions must be viewed from a holistic perspective to ensure all communities are protected and have opportunities to benefit from the wealth generated in creating a new economy.
IEN convenes and supports endowments in learning about Net Zero Portfolios, making commitments, and participating in shareholder engagement efforts to get portfolio companies onto decarbonization pathways aligned with the 1.5 degree C warming target of the Paris Climate Agreement.
This call was only open to IEN Members. If you or your organization would like to learn more or participate in this initiative, please contact Georges Dyer at [email protected].
Recording
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Bella Alvarez published [MEMBER ONLY] Investment Governance Working Group: Quarterly Call 11/9/22 in Past IEN Events 2022-10-25 16:42:25 -0400
[MEMBER ONLY] Investment Governance Working Group: Quarterly Call 11/9/22
IEN’s Investment Governance Initiative supports endowment fiduciaries in developing the tools needed to provide the leadership, stewardship, and governance to ensure their portfolios and institutions are positioned to have their investment practices reflect their mission while meeting the endowment’s risk and return objectives.
Members of the Investment Governance Initiative undertake and enable peer-to-peer connections among endowment trustees and actively serve as ambassadors for IEN.
The Investment Governance Working Group will cover a number of topical discussions from how to engage with endowment decision-makers to implementing best practices in investment governance with asset managers and allocators and integrating justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and climate solutions. Members will engage in activities such as peer learning, resource development, and training programs and will have access to exclusive benefits and resources including partner engagements and leadership recognition through op-ed placement, social media highlighting, and other strategic communications.
The first meeting of this newly convened group was on November 9, 2022 at 12 PM ET. This 90-minute meeting featured presentations from San Francisco State University, Cambridge Associates, The Investment Integration Project (TIIP), and Competent Boards.
Presenters:
Jeff Jackanicz, SFSU
Mike Pearce, Cambridge Associates
Nancy Wright, Competent Boards
Bill Burckart and Monique Aiken, TIIP
To learn more about the benefits of membership, please visit our membership overview page or contact Harrison Ungar at [email protected]
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Bella Alvarez published Weekly News Round-Up: October 13, 2022 in Weekly News Round-Ups 2022-10-17 12:58:00 -0400
Weekly News Round-Up: October 13, 2022
Registration is now open for our 2023 Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit! Join the Intentional Endowments Network and Second Nature in-person at the University of Miami on February 5- 7, 2023 for a gathering of higher ed leaders working to address the climate crisis and inequality.
We’re also looking for your help planning the program! Respond to our call for content with your ideas on speakers and topics that should be included, the best ways to facilitate dialogue, and how the sessions can meet your needs.
Last week, we opened the sign-up form for this year's Student Corporate Engagement Challenge! We hope you will share this opportunity with students that are interested in making a real societal impact, in addition to expanding their sustainable investing knowledge and networks.
In this week’s news, the DOL’s proposed rule on ESG in pension plans arrives at the White House, two Oregon universities announce supportive programs for Native American students, and the far-reaching impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act are examined.
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Bella Alvarez published Weekly News Round-Up: October 6, 2022 in Weekly News Round-Ups 2022-10-17 12:57:15 -0400
Weekly News Round-Up: October 6, 2022
The recording for last week’s webinar on As You Vote is now available for viewing. This recording will be available to everyone, regardless of whether or not you are a member. IEN Members can access all of our past recordings on our past webinars page.
We’re looking forward to our webinar on investing in food justice, which has been rescheduled for November 16th ! Register to join our speakers from VegTech Invest, Barclays, The Good Food Institute, Project Drawdown, and the FAIRR Initiative.
In this week’s news, AASHE releases its 2022 Anthology on Racial Justice, including an essay by IEN’s Director of JEDI Paris Prince, Princeton disassociates from 90 fossil fuel companies, and BlackRock restructures its executive levels to better defend itself as it faces a wave of criticism.
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Bella Alvarez published Weekly News Round-Up: September 29, 2022 in Weekly News Round-Ups 2022-10-17 12:57:08 -0400
Weekly News Round-Up: September 29, 2022
We’d like to extend our thanks to our panelists and attendees on today’s Vote Your Values with As You Vote webinar! IEN Members and registrants of the webinar will be able to receive a recording of this overview of As You Sow’s proxy voting system as soon as it is available.
If you haven’t done so, please register for our workshop on unconscious bias on October 6 at 1 PM ET! This highly interactive workshop will explore our biases in hiring and belonging with Demetriouse Russell, CEO of Venn Diagram Partners.
We’re also hosting a webinar on investing in a shifting food supply system on October 11! Register for this in-depth conversation hosted by IEN and VegTech Invest to explore the inefficiencies in the food supply system that contribute to food insecurity.
In this week’s news, Brunel University divests from fossil fuels, the University of Utah moves its net-zero emissions target date up a decade, and the Connecticut pension system allocates $300M to diverse managers.
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Bella Alvarez published Weekly News Round-Up: September 23, 2022 in Weekly News Round-Ups 2022-10-17 12:57:03 -0400
Weekly News Round-Up: September 23, 2022
We were thrilled to join many of you at our first in-person event in two years, our Institutional Investor Roundtable at the Nest Summit Campus, a part of Climate Week NYC! Keep an eye out next week for a recap of our panels and highlights from the day’s conversations.
We are also excited to announce the launch of our Sustainable Retirement Plans Pledge with the support of Second Nature and The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)! The Sustainable Retirement Plans Pledge gives universities the opportunity to review the offerings in their retirement plans and assess the availability of sustainable options.
In this week's news, SFSU reveals updates its racial and climate commitments, Federated Hermes ends its support of an anti-ESG organization, and the Walton endowment aligns its investments with its mission.
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Bella Alvarez published Weekly News Round-Up: September 15, 2022 in Weekly News Round-Ups 2022-10-17 12:56:56 -0400
Weekly News Round-Up: September 15, 2022
There’s only one week left until our Institutional Investor Roundtable at the Nest Summit Campus on September 22! The generosity of our sponsors has given us the opportunity to allow a few universities and colleges to register free of charge using the code AssetOwner100. We hope to see you there!
You can view the agenda for the roundtable here, and learn more about our speakers and next-level conversation hosts here. We’d also like to extend a thank you to our roundtable lead sponsor Federated Hermes, our gold-level sponsor Impax Asset Management, and our silver-level sponsors Breckinridge Capital Advisors, Impact Shares, and Schroders.
In this week’s news, NACUBO releases a report about student-managed investment funds highlighting IEN’s SIILK Network, the Universities of Washington and Hull divest from fossil fuels, and Harvard’s research into its ties to slavery lead to questions for the university and the descendants of those it enslaved.
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Bella Alvarez published Weekly News Round-Up: September 8, 2022 in Weekly News Round-Ups 2022-10-17 12:56:50 -0400
Weekly News Round-Up: September 8, 2022
IEN is thrilled to announce that Derrick Johnson, CEO and President of the NAACP, will be our keynote speaker at our Institutional Investor Roundtable on September 22nd, a part of Climate Week NYC! Asset owners are invited to register for free using the code ‘AssetOwner100’.
We also have a number of other learning opportunities coming up, including a webinar on the proxy voting platform As You Vote, the third installment in our unconscious bias series, and our in-person 2023 Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit. We hope you can join us for our virtual and in-person gatherings!
In this week’s news, BlackRock responds to a letter from 19 Republican state attorneys general, the UK proposes climate risk disclosures for local government pension schemes, and demonstrators push Indiana University to divest from fossil fuels.
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