Press Release updated on Feb 13, 2023

Cornelia Horner, Kunle Apampa, George Suttles, Amita Schultes, and Geri Melchiorre to advise on the Intentional Endowments Network’s strategic direction.

The Intentional Endowments Network has welcomed Tim Coffin, Head of Strategic Partnerships Sustainability Committee Chair at Breckinridge, to its Net Zero Endowments Steering Committee

Amita Schultes, Ph.D., Partner at Agility

Kaede Kawauchi, Manager, Investor Network, Ceres

Currently, nonprofit institutions offer limited ESG investing options in their retirement plans with less than 3% of employee retirement savings plans include climate-friendly investing options. This has been despite substantial evidence that ESG strategies can reduce risk and enhance long-term investment performance. Concerns about fiduciary duty are often cited as a barrier for these institutions to offer these options.

A new proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Labor would open the way for retirement plan sponsors to include more sustainable options in their saving plans by enabling fiduciaries to consider climate and other ESG factors when selecting investments and exercising shareholder rights while continuing to uphold fundamental fiduciary obligations. 

This webinar is intended to help clarify how plan sponsors and trustees can consider sustainable investing strategies related to their fiduciary duties in light of the new proposed rules. Join us for an informative and interactive webinar comprised of top experts on the state of fiduciary duty for defined contribution plans in the United States to learn how your institution could provide retirement funds that reflect both the mission of your organization and the values of your employees.

In this session, participants will:

• Gain a deeper understanding of the impact of the proposed rules on ESG investment opportunities

• Hear about how the rule change is viewed by the investment service community

Recording 

Panelists:

• Keith Johnson, Former Partner, Head of Institutional Investor Legal Service, Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren
• Bradford Campbell, Partner at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
• Bill Slimbaugh, Managing Director, Natixis
• Michael Rhim, Principal, PRM Consulting – The IEN Guide to Sustainable Retirements

Resources:

• Powerpoints
• DOL’s proposed rule
• Identify “Greenwashing” Funds using NLP in Firms’ Prospectuses
• IEN Retirement Guide

Chris Ito of FFI Solutions and Georges Dyer of Intentional Endowments Network go “beyond carbon” to discuss topics relating to climate change, net zero, DEIJ (diversity, equity, inclusion & justice), ESG and the benefits and challenges of sustainable investing.

Episodes

Episode 12

SPLIT

Jeff Gitterman: Pragmatism over Polarization in Long-Term Investing

Sustainable investing veteran, Jeff Gitterman, joins hosts Chris and George to discuss bridging divides in ESG investing and climate change debates. Gitterman advocates pragmatism - finding common ground between proponents and skeptics. Key highlights include investment opportunities in climate solutions like infrastructure, recognizing physical risks as warning signs, and widening the sustainable investing tent to diverse viewpoints. While addressing challenges, Gitterman underscores the necessity of open dialogue, consensus-building, and reframing ESG around stakeholder capitalism over political divisions. Listeners gain insights into navigating complexities, advancing sustainable investing through understanding, and meeting investors where they are.

Episode 11

SPLIT

Presidio Student Insights: A Winning Pitch from the Next Generation of Sustainable Investors

In this episode, hosts Chris Ito and Georges Dyer engage in a captivating conversation with a trio of students from Presidio Graduate School, who were members of the team that emerged victorious in the IEN's 2023 Student Corporate Engagement Challenge in the Graduate category. The challenge encourages students to pitch an investment in a publicly traded company, coupled with a shareholder engagement strategy. The conversation focuses on their investment pitch for First Solar and its groundbreaking thin-film cadmium telluride technology, offering a more sustainable alternative to traditional solar panels.

Episode 10

SPLIT

Ian Fuller: Unlocking Diversity for Alpha and Impact Investing

This episode features Ian Fuller, CEO and Co-Founder of West Fuller Advisors, a minority and women-owned investment advisory firm and Outsourced CIO dedicated to impact investing. Georges and Chris talk with Ian about his personal journey from New York’s Lower East Side to Wall Street as context for West Fuller's mission to drive change through ethical investments, and challenging traditional notions of money's role in building a sustainable future.

Episode 9

SPLIT

Dr. Michael Greenstone: Decoding the Social Cost of Carbon and the Carbon Offset Market

In this episode, Chris and Georges do a deep dive into the economic implications of carbon emissions with one of the world’s leading climate finance experts, Dr. Michael Greenstone. As a former chief economist for President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, Dr. Greenstone played a pivotal role in developing the "social cost of carbon." The trio discusses the significance of understanding the economic cost of carbon emissions and the tools policymakers have at their disposal to combat climate change.

About

Risks created by climate change are complex and multi-faceted. The intersection of science, policy, changing societal norms, notions of equity and politics makes projecting and then solving the climate crisis challenging. 

This podcast unpacks climate change and climate justice through the lens of finance and investing, helping to inform institutions and everyday savers on what it means to adopt sustainable policies. Best practices are evolving and there is no one size-fits-all approach to determining the best path.

Our hosts, Georges Dyer and Chris Ito will hold discussions with thought leaders from a range of disciplines that will help investors form their own opinions on how to allocate capital in a more sustainable fashion.

Michael Pearce, Managing Director, Cambridge Associates

Michael Pearce, Managing Director, Cambridge Associates

Register here

The climate crisis is upending the finance sector. ESG frameworks and rankings remain dynamic and unsettled, but, despite their imperfections, are impacting billions of investments and leading companies to develop new metrics to gauge their sustainability progress.

GreenFin 23 (June 26-28, Boston) will convene an influential audience of finance, investment and sustainability professionals to share insights, address key challenges and showcase leading sustainable financial products and services. Apply IEN’s 10% discount code GF23IEN when you register today: http://bit.ly/3IcFVCX 

 Register here

GIVING TUESDAY For a Just Society!

#ImpactGiving 

Help us raise $25 000 to advance Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Endowments Investment Processes.

On #GivingTuesday, make a positive impact in support of IEN's JEDI initiative and operations by Making a donation today!

Online contributions are quick and easy through PayPal

What do we do with your Giving Tuesday Donations?

IEN strive to center justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in all of its initiatives. This year we've hired a Director of JEDI, Paris Prince to help integrate these principles, and since then we've been able to achieve the following:

• IEN has collaborated with GEM to publish an essay highlighting the essential role of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in investment decisions for AASHE’s 2022 Anthology.
• We hosted a three part series on Unconscious Bias in the Investment Industry to address the underrepresentation of ESG and diverse led asset management firms in the institutional marketplace during Black history month.
• We had 650+ higher Education professionals join us at our 2022 Summit to be inspired and learn how to prioritize issues like climate justice, allocating to diverse managers, and investing with a racial and gender equity lens.
• We also hosted a successful Climate Week event this fall with the open remarks of Derrick Johnson, CEO of the NAACP. 
  

Here is what event attendees had to say about the Climate Week Event: 

"I woke up this morning thinking what an inspiring roundtable event that was yesterday. Thank you to all at IEN for the hard work of organizing it. It was wonderful to network and learn from so many interesting and committed organizations and people.”

_______________________

"Of all my Climate Week events, the IEN afternoon stood out as being a place where investors came together to work on hard issues.  I have had many follow ups and really appreciate your leadership in putting together a format that encouraged real dialogue and action.  I look forward to more work together."

Looking Ahead...

Hitting our year end fundraising goal will help us build off this work and support more endowments in investing for an equitable, low-carbon, and regenerative society by:

• Growing our JEDI working group
• Engaging more diverse managers and minority-serving institutions in the Network
• Host a BIPOC/HBCU/Leaders of Color dinner at the 2023 Summit to build, strengthen and recognize BIPOC leadership in climate justice work
• Fund our operation needs

Give to advance Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Endowment Investment Process Today!

Thank you for making a difference!

George Suttles, Executive Director, Commonfund Institute

Cornelia Horner, Strategic Initiatives and Communications Lead at the University of Virginia Investment Management Company (UVIMCO)

IDiF seeks to advance representation, create a culture of capital that embraces diversity, and accelerate economic justice, power, and influence for all. Our practice of change is led by community, collaboration, and creativity. We are building The Center of Innovation for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Finance to address the fact that only 1.4% of total U.S.-based assets are managed by firms owned by women or people of color. Recognizing that diverse representation cannot happen without intentionality, we have built a community of 650 cross-sectional changemakers who have allocated 3,000+ volunteer hours to reposition the investment management space into an equitable environment.

idif.org

Sphere is a registered public benefit corporation that is amplifying a social movement to get 401(k) retirement savings money out of fossil fuel companies. We help employers provide employees with authentic climate-friendly investment options while maintaining fiduciary duty with quality products at reasonable fees. 

www.oursphere.org

Intentional Endowments Network Climate Week Roundtable 

at the Nest Summit Campus, September 22, 2022

1:30 - 6:30pm ET

Javits Center, New York City (Javits North, Room 407.1)

A Part of Climate Week NYC

IEN's Roundtable at The Nest Summit Campus, a part of Climate Week NYC 2022, was a dynamic, interactive set of conversations on mission-aligned investing, ESG factors, Net Zero Portfolios, JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) in the investment process and more. 

We were joined by approximately 100-120 Trustees, CIOs, endowment staff, asset managers, investment consultants, Outsourced CIOs, retirement planning experts, sustainability leaders, faculty and nonprofit partners for thought-provoking and pragmatic learning that inspired action.

Reactions from those in the room:

"I woke up this morning thinking what an inspiring roundtable event that was yesterday.  Thank you to all at IEN for the hard work of organizing it.  It was wonderful to network and learn from so many interesting and committed organizations and people.”

"It was such a pleasure being with you all.  Of all my Climate Week events, the IEN afternoon stood out as being a place where investors came together to work on hard issues.  I have had many follow ups and really appreciate your leadership in putting together a format that encouraged real dialogue and action.  I look forward to more work together."

More:

• Recordings
• Speakers
• Agenda

Featured Speaker

  Derrick Johnson, President & CEO, NAACP

Thank you to our sponsors!

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Please reach out to [email protected] with any questions.

We’re excited to announce that IEN will be hosting a roundtable at the Nest Summit (part of climate week NYC) on September 22, 2022. Please save the date, and more information including registration and an agenda will be available soon.

There is still time to vote for our SOCAP session proposal on how higher education can make an impact through shareholder engagement. Please vote for our proposal here before tomorrow’s deadline!

Lastly, I will be on parental leave until October 31st. Bella Alvarez, IEN’s Program Associate, will ensure that you receive our weekly round-up while I’m away. Please reach out to Bella at [email protected] if you need assistance in relation to IEN’s communications in my absence, and to connect on other aspects of IEN’s programming, please contact Nicole at [email protected].

It was a pleasure seeing many of you join yesterday’s webinar on racial equity investing! The event recording will be available for members and event registrants soon. In the meantime, make sure to register for our July 26th learning opportunity on endowments investment opportunities that aim at decarbonizing the shipping industry and the global supply chain.

In this week’s news, the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. divests from 5 major oil and gas companies over concerns for not doing enough to fight climate change; Major global emitters are questioning the United States’ commitment to fighting climate change after the recent US Supreme court’s ruling against federal carbon emissions regulations, and IEN Member Stewart Investors releases its 2021 Climate Report.

The recording of our Juneteenth season discussions (Part One) on Unconscious Bias is now available. If you haven’t yet, we invite you to join us for two upcoming and exciting learning opportunities on racial equity investing July 13th at 1pm ET and a webinar focused on decarbonizing the maritime industry, in collaboration with EnTrust Global, on July 26th at 12pm ET.

In this week’s news, over 30 faith institutions announce their divestment commitments, the Supreme Court’s EPA rule threatens ESG and climate proposals by the DOL and the SEC while Harvard will established a new Institute for climate and sustainability to advance its commitment to climate-oriented research out of a $200 million donation from Melanie and Jean E. Salata.

It was a pleasure to have many of you join our Juneteenth season discussions kick-off this morning! For those of you who weren’t able to make it, the recording will be available to watch next week. We also invite you to continue this conversation on July 13, at 1pm ET by registering for the upcoming webinar on key considerations for diversifying the endowment and asset management industry. 

In this week's news, Concordia Invests $2M to accelerate ecological transition through circular economy, and Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance released a paper on the importance of governmental carbon pricing.

During this Juneteenth season, we’ll be facilitating a number of conversations on JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion) as it relates to intersectionality and unconscious bias within endowments and the investment industry.

If you haven’t yet, please take a moment to register for our upcoming webinars on unconscious (and conscious) bias scheduled for June 30th, and the Power of Intersectionality scheduled for July 13th to learn and take meaningful action toward addressing underrepresentation of diverse led asset management firms in the institutional marketplace.