Pages tagged "divestment"

Warren Wilson College

Posted on Endowment Snapshots by · October 05, 2016 10:47 AM

Warren Wilson College

Endowment Value: $55 million (2020)

Warren Wilson College is a private college located in Swannanoa, North Carolina. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of around 600 students. The Board of Trustees' Investment Committee manages the endowment.

Warren Wilson College’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously in 2015 to divest endowment funds from fossil fuels over the next five years. In a move that aligns the college’s investments with its core values, the college will divest from the world’s top coal, oil, and gas companies. The Board adopted a Responsible Investment Policy that includes environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) considerations and management strategies. In addition to no new endowment funds being invested in fossil fuel companies, the College also conducts positive screenings based on ESG parameters. Within two years alone, the College successfully divested 84% of its portfolio.

In 2020, Warren Wilson College was featured in the Intentional Endowment Network’s case study on ESG investing. The study revealed that schools employing ESG investing practices saw the same or better returns as schools employing a traditional approach to investing. Read the full study here.

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

  • AASHE STARS: Yes, Gold
  • ACUPCC: Yes, Carbon Neutral by 2025
  • Billion Dollar Green Challenge: No
  • CDP: No
  • Divestment Goal: Yes, full
  • Committee for Investor Responsibility: Yes
  • INCR: No
  • Montreal Carbon Pledge: No
  • Sustainable Investment Fund: No
  • Sustainable Investment Policy: Yes
  • Principles for Responsible Investment: No

Other Sustainable Investing Practices and Resources:



 

San Diego Unified Calls on Pension Funds to Divest from Fossil Fuels

Posted on Weekly News Round-Ups by · August 25, 2016 10:07 AM
August 25th, 2016
The San Diego Unified School District’s (SDUSD) Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution on July 26th calling on the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (STRS) and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) to divest their investment portfolios of stocks in fossil fuel companies. Recognizing the threat of global warming, the resolution also supports last year’s state legislation, SB 185, which requires PERS and STRS to divest from coal stocks. Most of SDUSD’s employees belong to these huge retirement systems.

Positive Organizational Leadership and Pro-Environmental Behavior: The Phenomenon of Institutional Fossil Fuel Divestment

Posted on Weekly News Round-Ups by · July 27, 2016 12:27 PM
July 27th, 2016

Climate change is one of the most significant dynamics of our time. The predominant contributor to climate change is combustion of fossil fuels by humans. This study deepened understanding of organizational leaders’ role in enacting one approach to addressing climate change: institutional fossil fuel divestment.

Newcastle's biggest university says no to coal's

Posted on Weekly News Round-Ups by · July 26, 2016 11:58 AM
July 26th, 2016
A city built on coal wealth is turning away from the fossil fuel. Or at least, its biggest university is.Newcastle University has become the most recent UK university pledging to divest from fossil fuels. The university joins a growing number of UK schools that have moved toward investments in alternative energy solutions.

NYC Pension Funds Begin to Craft a Fossil-Fuel Divestment Path

Posted on Weekly News Round-Ups by · July 25, 2016 7:40 PM
July 25th, 2016
NYC Pension Funds Begin to Craft a Fossil-Fuel Divestment Path by IEEFA. A certain recent RFP from the New York City comptroller on behalf of the city’s pension funds could be the beginning of something big. It calls for a carbon footprint analysis of the funds’ holdings and advertises an opening for a climate-risk investment-strategy consultant. While the RFP is shrouded in pension-speak, its aim is clear: to introduce a series of asset-allocation decisions that will minimize fossil fuel risk and optimize portfolio returns.

Northeastern University Sustainable Pledge Draws Mixed Reactions

Posted on Weekly News Round-Ups by · July 20, 2016 4:29 PM
July 20, 2016
As of July 11, Northeastern announced that it will be directing $25 million of its endowment funds toward sustainable investments over the next five years. Though NU has no direct investments in fossil fuel companies, some members the student activist group “DivestNU” disagree with the university’s investment policies.

Cornell Alumni Trustee Hopeful Calls Divestment Finance 'Prudent'

Posted on Weekly News Round-Ups by · July 01, 2016 11:27 AM
July 1st, 2016
Fossil fuel divestment is more likely to augment the University’s endowment than harm it in the long run, according to Joe Rowland ’73, a candidate petitioning to be considered for an alumni-elected position on the Board of Trustees. Prof. Hendrik Bessembinder, finance, Arizona State University, published a study May 11 that estimated Cornell’s endowment would decline by between $120.75 million and $724.5 million over the next 20 years, solely due to the frictional cost of transitioning to and maintaining a fossil-free portfolio.

Students call on Cambridge University to divest fully from fossil fuels Read more: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/student-campaigners-call-on-cambridge-university-to-divest-fully-from-fossil-fuels

Posted on Weekly News Round-Ups by · June 24, 2016 12:15 AM

Student campaigners call on Cambridge University to divest fully from fossil fuels l Cambridge News

June 22, 2016

Student campaigners have welcomed confirmation Cambridge University will not invest in the most environmentally-damaging technologies, but called on it to go further and divest completely from fossil fuels.

A meeting of the university's governing council approved the report of a working group established to explore ethical investment, with coal and tar sands excluded from its current and future holdings.



Read more: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/student-campaigners-call-on-cambridge-university-to-divest-fully-from-fossil-fuels/story-29428329-detail/story.html#ixzz4CSzXhrDp 
Follow us: @CambridgeNewsUK on Twitter | cambridgenews on Facebook
Read more at http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/student-campaigners-call-on-cambridge-university-to-divest-fully-from-fossil-fuels/story-29428329-detail/story.html#Rqs11pXDuYXTrkHK.99

 

Student campaigners call on Cambridge University to divest fully from fossil fuels

Read more: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/student-campaigners-call-on-cambridge-university-to-divest-fully-from-fossil-fuels/story-29428329-detail/story.html#ixzz4CSxomSZy 
Follow us: @CambridgeNewsUK on Twitter | cambridgenews on Facebook
Read more at http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/student-campaigners-call-on-cambridge-university-to-divest-fully-from-fossil-fuels/story-29428329-detail/story.html#Rqs11pXDuYXTrkHK.99

New York University decides against fossil-fuel divestment for endowment

Posted on Weekly News Round-Ups by · June 20, 2016 4:59 PM

New York University decides against fossil-fuel divestment for endowment l Pensions & Investments

by Robert Steyer, June 20, 2016

The New York University board of trustees voted against divesting fossil-fuel investments from its $3.5 billion endowment. “The board does not believe divestment is the proper action to take,” said a statement issued June 16, signed by William R. Berkley, chairman of the board of trustees, and Andrew Hamilton, the university’s president. “Regardless, the university will continue to take steps and look for concrete ways to enhance sustainability and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.”

Cambridge University rejects calls to divest from fossil fuels

Posted on Weekly News Round-Ups by · June 19, 2016 5:01 PM

Cambridge University rejects calls to divest from fossil fuels l The Guardian

by, Adam Vaughan, June 19, 2016

The University of Cambridge has rejected calls to divest its £5.9bn endowment from fossil fuels, as students, academics and the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams have called for.

In a report on Friday, the university ruled out future investments in coal and tar sands, although it currently has no direct holdings in either, and only negligible holdings in coal by investments managed externally.

 

Working group on investment responsibility argues it is better to keep investments in oil and gas companies, rather than divest £5.9bn endowment

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