Pages tagged "Committee on Investor Responsibility"

Yale University

Posted on Endowment Snapshots by · June 08, 2015 8:11 PM

Yale University 

Endowment Value: $42.3 billion (June 2021)

Yale University is a private research university located in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest higher education institution in the United States and has a total student body of more than 12,000. Its endowment is managed by the Investments Office under the guidance of Yale’s Investment Committee and led by Chief Investment Officer David F. Swenson.

Yale was one of the first institutions to formally address the ethical responsibilities of institutional investors. In the 1970s, Yale established the Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility (ACIR) and the Corporation Committee on Investor Responsibility (CCIR) to address issues of socially responsible investing. The ACIR and CCIR recommend policy to the Yale Corporation, the university’s governing body, and implement approved policy.

In 2014, in response to pressure from the student group Fossil Free Yale, the CCIR and ACIR explored the possibility of fossil fuel divestment. As a result of this discussion, the CCIR adopted a proxy voting guideline on climate change, instructing managers to support “shareholder resolutions seeking company disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions, analyses of the impact of climate change on a company’s business activities, strategies designed to reduce the company’s long-term impact on the global climate, and company support of sound and effective governmental policies on climate change."

Climate change was officially announced as a consideration in Yale’s investment strategy in April 2016. In a letter to the ACIR, CIO David Swensen wrote, “the Investments Office approaches the climate change issue more broadly by considering any exposure with risk related to climate change and potential regulations aimed at reducing emissions.” Swensen also reported that after months of talking with Yale’s external investment managers about the potential risks associated with investments in coal and oil, around $10 million of the endowment has been removed from two publicly-traded fossil fuel producers.

Yale currently has a robust student-managed socially responsible investment fund. Established in 2016 and initially seeded with $50,000 from the Dwight Hall organization endowment, the fund’s main goal is to outperform standard investment benchmarks and maximize financial return while positively contributing to social impact areas including the environment, education, and employment.

Yale University is a participant or member of the following Initiatives & Commitments: 

  • AASHE STARS: Yes, Gold
  • ACUPCC: No
  • Billion Dollar Green Challenge: No
  • CDP: No
  • Committee for Investor Responsibility: Yes
  • Divestment Goal: Yes, partial
  • INCR: No
  • Montreal Carbon Pledge: No
  • Sustainable Investment Fund: Yes
  • Sustainable Investment Policy: Yes
  • Principles for Responsible Investment: No

Other Sustainable Investing Practices and Resources:

Swarthmore College

Posted on Endowment Snapshots by · May 04, 2015 5:25 PM

Swarthmore College

Endowment Value: $2.90 billion (2021)

Swarthmore College is a private liberal arts college located in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. The college's Finance and Investment offices manage the endowment. The Board of Managers oversees the endowment.

Swarthmore students are among the first to establish a campus fossil fuel divestment campaign.  In 2010, students established Swarthmore Mountain Justice to call on the administration to divest after witnessing mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia.

Although it has yet to fully divest from fossil fuels, Swarthmore does consider ESG factors, including making it a criterion in manager selection, engaging in dialogue with existing managers, and divestment from coal companies. Furthermore, Swarthmore has pledged to expand the environmental studies curriculum and improve on-campus energy efficiency. Its Committee on Investor Responsibility provides proxy voting recommendations on shareholder resolutions addressing social issues.

 In 2015, the Board established a fossil-fuel free fund for donors that wish to contribute to Swarthmore’s endowment. Swarthmore currently has several environmental sustainability funds designated for green project grants, environmental studies scholarships, and internships.

In 2019, Swarthmore College was awarded an Excellence in Sustainability Award by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO). NACUBO commended Swarthmore’s commitment to carbon neutrality by 2035 and its Carbon Charge Program, which creates an internal price on carbon emissions.

Swarthmore College is a participant or member of the following Initiatives & Commitments: 

  • AASHE STARs: Yes, Silver
  • ACUPCC: Yes, Climate Neutral by 2035
  • Billion Dollar Green Challenge: No
  • CDP: No
  • Committee for Investor Responsibility: Yes
  • Divestment Goal: No
  • INCR: No
  • Montreal Carbon Pledge: No
  • Sustainable Investment Fund: Yes
  • Sustainable Investment Policy: No
  • Principles for Responsible Investment: No

Other Sustainable Investing Practices and Resources:

 

Brandeis University

Posted on Endowment Snapshots by · May 04, 2015 3:08 PM

Brandeis University 

Endowment Value: $1.3 billion (2021)

Brandeis University is a private college in Waltham, Massachusetts. The Brandeis Sustainability Fund provides financial support for Brandeis undergraduate students willing to undertake projects and/or activities to improve Brandeis’s environmental sustainability.

Brandeis University has a strong history of leadership in social justice, a legacy that has impacted its endowment management policies. Since its adoption of a Responsible Investor General Guideline by the Board of Trustees in 1973, Brandeis University has strived to be conscious of the social and environmental impact of its investments and exercises its ethical responsibilities as an investor. Following significant student activism and the recommendations of an exploratory committee on fossil fuel divestment, in November of 2018, the president of Brandeis officially announced the Board of Trustee’s decision to adopt a coal divestment policy. Furthermore, the president’s announcement stated that the investment office and the board’s investment committee would take measures to find investments in renewable energy sources and technologies focused on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Brandeis University is a participant or member of the following Initiatives & Commitments: 

Other Sustainable Investing Practices:

Amherst College

Posted on Endowment Snapshots by · April 12, 2015 3:57 PM

Endowment Value: $3.7 billion (June 2021)

Amherst College is a private college located in Amherst, Massachusetts. The endowment is managed by the Amherst College Office of Investment and Investment Committee.

Amherst currently partners with 73 sustainable investment managers, who in turn invest in public stocks, bonds, real estate, private companies, natural resources, and other assets. Each of these independent managers operates with full discretion to buy, sell, or trade a range of securities. Amherst aims to invest with managers who thoughtfully and consistently incorporate ESG factors into their investment process. The Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees and the Office of Investment have the important task of determining where the college should invest its capital. The College does not have the ability to dictate which securities its independent managers should buy or to avoid, as Amherst’s assets are almost always invested in partnerships alongside other investors. However, Amherst does encourage its investment partners to “thoughtfully and consistently incorporate environmental considerations into the investment process.” Investment managers are aware that sustainability is an important consideration for the college in making investments. They are also aware of how important sustainable investing principles are to their continued ability to attract investment dollars.

Over the past decade, Amherst College has taken significant steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on campus, including switching to lower-carbon fuel sources, adding a co-generation plant to create heat and electricity from those fuel sources more efficiently, designing and constructing buildings following a high-performance building standard, and completing recommissioning and deep energy retrofits of existing buildings to further improve campus energy efficiency. As a result, Amherst has seen a 30 percent reduction in emissions from its 2006 emissions levels.

In 2015, the Amherst College Board of Trustees approved a Statement on Sustainability and Investment Policy, which acknowledged the grave threat posed by the climate crisis and supported the development of a strategy for achieving carbon-neutrality on campus. The College pledged to “adopt policies that embed sustainability in its operations, in its investment process, and its life as a community,” and declared it would regularly report progress to the Amherst community. In 2017, the College also developed a plan to go “beyond carbon neutral,” which would apply a carbon tax to Amherst’s emissions in 2035. Additionally, Amherst plans to fund projects that will decarbonize the campus.

Amherst is a member of the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), a network founded by Ceres, a nonprofit organization advocating for sustainability leadership. "As part of our involvement with the INCR, the College has supported two letter-writing initiatives: one to the finance ministers of the Group of Seven in support of a long-term global emissions reduction goal and one in support of the White House’s proposal to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas industry by at least 45% below 2012 levels by 2025." In 2017, the College also became a signatory to the “We Are Still In Campaign” to demonstrate its commitment to delivering on the Paris Agreement’s goals.

Proxy Voting Policy - Amherst College continues to use its shareholder voting rights to promote the principles of sustainable and responsible investment, utilizing research from ISS for all proxies before casting votes in alignment with these principles. The College continues to proactively evaluate and vote shareholder proxies in alignment with ESG principles, advocating for corporate accountability on social, ethical, environmental, and governance issues.

In 2019, Amherst announced its plan to go carbon neutral by 2030. The College plans to use geothermal and solar energy to achieve this goal. The Board of Trustees mentioned that the school will not rely on carbon offsets to achieve carbon neutrality and will instead focus on diminishing its dependence on fossil fuels while increasing its usage of renewable energy.

Amherst College is a participant or member of the following Initiatives & Commitments: 

Other Sustainable Investing Practices:

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