Pages tagged "Divestment Goal"

Brown Univeristy

Posted on Endowment Snapshots by · July 30, 2015 5:15 PM

Endowment Value: $3.8 billion (June 2019)

Brown University is a private college, with located in Providence, Rhode Island. The endowment is managed by the Brown University Investment Office. The Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies (ACCRIP) considers issues of ethical and moral responsibility in the investment policies of Brown University. Committee members include students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the University. ACCRIP examines all proxy resolutions concerning issues of social responsibility that are presented to the University as a shareholder and has developed guidelines for voting on such resolutions.

In 2016, Brown launched the Sustainable Investment Fund, a fund with no minimum donation that gives donors who wish to support the University philanthropically a sustainability-focused giving option structured to invest in companies that meet high standards of environmental, social and governance practices.

In 2017, President Christina Paxson announced the formation of a Task Force on Climate Change and Business and Investment Practices that will identify and recommend opportunities for Brown to fully align Brown's business practices with the University's commitment to addressing climate change. In February of 2019, President Paxson endorsed a bipartisan plan to tax carbon proposed by the Climate Leadership Council. 

 

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

 

Other Sustainable Investing Practices:

 

Unity College

Posted on Endowment Snapshots by · July 29, 2015 1:20 PM

Endowment Value: $15 (September2018)

Unity College is a private college with a student body of 700 located in Unity, Maine. The Spinnaker Trust and an Investment Committee, comprised of three members of the board of Trustees, manages the endowment.  Unity College is known as “America’s Environmental College” and is a founding member of the Intentional Endowments Network.

In 2012, the Unity College Board of Trustees voted unanimously to divest from investments in fossil fuels. As the first institution of higher learning in the United States to divest, Unity College became the standard bearer for a national movement. That Fall, UC’s finance officials released an internal report showing its portfolio has performed ahead of expectations since the decision. “Divestment has had no negative effect on our endowment portfolio,” said former Unity College President Dr. Stephen Mulkey, a leader in the growing campus divestment movement. “Divesting from fossil fuels is not a concession that means you automatically have a lower rate of return over the long run,” said Mulkey.

Critics point out that divesting institutions still use fossil fuels, but Mulkey sees an analogy to tobacco. “You can still be addicted while working on quitting,” he said. And in much the same way so-called “climate deniers” have tried to cast doubt on data that show rapidly rising global temperatures, some have questioned the significance of Unity’s divestment, given its relatively modest endowment – $13.5 million at the time, now $15 million. But given recent extremes in weather – and with the news of ever-larger institutions deciding to divest – both such arguments may be losing strength.


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

 

Other Sustainable Investing Practices:

 

The New School

Posted on Endowment Snapshots by · July 28, 2015 1:42 PM

Endowment Value: $392 million (June 2018)

The New School is a private research university located in New York City, New York. The endowment is managed by the Office of Investment, Treasury Operations, and Risk Management.

In 2009, the board of trustees established the Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility. The role of the ACIR is to advise the board of trustees on ESG issues related to The New School’s endowment and to develop ESG investing principles related to human rights, labor practices, environmental protection, equity, diversity, discrimination, and corporate disclosure. In 2012, The New School adopted the Sustainability Proxy Voting Guidelines, which established standards against which the Investment Committee could evaluate its investments in regards to ESG factors.

In 2015, The New School not only became one of the largest universities to divest its endowment of fossil fuel, but also has plans to reshape the entire curriculum to focus more on climate change and sustainability through a multi pronged approach to issues related to university facilities, curriculum, food services, and other areas.


The New School is a participant or member of the following Initiatives & Commitments: 

Other Sustainable Investing Practices:

 

Hampshire College

Posted on Endowment Snapshots by · July 14, 2015 12:26 AM

Endowment Value: $52 million (January 2019)

Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts. The college's endowment is managed by the Trustees of Hampshire College.

Hampshire College was among the first colleges to adopt SRI policies in the 1970s, and it was the first to divest from South Africa to protest apartheid. In 2011, Hampshire began working to adopt ESG principles into its investment strategies by adopting a new investment policy that emphasized positive screening and active investment in companies that aligned with Hampshire’s mission. This new policy led Hampshire College to become the first college to divest from fossil fuels.

Hampshire College’s Policy on Environmental, Social and Governance Investing acknowledges that because of the long-term risks certain business practices pose, consideration of ESG principles is part of the college’s fiduciary duties. Read the full policy here.

In January 2019, College President Miriam Nelson announced the College’s intention to find a long-term strategic partner to merge with and ensure a “thriving and sustainable future”, citing both financial and enrollment hardships as a small, under-endowed liberal arts college.


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

 

Other Sustainable Investing Practices and News:

Pitzer College

Posted on Endowment Snapshots by · June 30, 2015 1:12 AM

Endowment Value: $141.4 million (June 2018)

Pitzer College is a private college located in Claremont, California. About 1,000 students attend the college. From innovative, green buildings to food waste initiatives, Pitzer College is a model of sustainability in the modern era, a fact that earned it 7th place the 2018 Princeton Review Guide to 399 Green Colleges.

In 2014, Pitzer adopted several monumental responsible investment policies such as considering ESG factors in portfolio manager selection and monitoring, establishing a sustainability fund as a subset of its endowment holdings, and divesting from fossil fuels (and thus becoming the first college in Southern California to divest). Don Gould, trustee and chair of the investment committee at Pitzer College, published an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education outlining their rationale for divesting from fossil fuels.Within this article, he shares responses to some of the most common concerns regarding divestment, from fiduciary duty and financial performance, the impact on fossil fuel companies and hypocrisy of continuing to use fossil fuels to sacrificing returns and politicizing the endowment.

In 2017, Pitzer College became the founding investor to the first ever global equity index that is both ESG-focused and fossil fuel-free. According to the press release, “the fund is designed to help endowments, foundations and other nonprofit organizations meet their Responsible Investment goals.”

 

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

  • IEN Member (2017)
  • AASHE STARS: Yes, Gold
  • ACUPCC: Yes, Climate Neutral by 2050
  • Billion Dollar Green Challenge: No
  • CDP: No
  • Committee for Investor Responsibility: Yes
  • Divestment Goal: Yes, Full
  • INCR: No
  • Montreal Carbon Pledge: No
  • Sustainable Investment Fund: Yes
  • Sustainable Investment Policy: In Progress
  • Principles for Responsible Investment: No

 

Other Sustainable Investing Practices:

 

San Francisco State University

Posted on Endowment Snapshots by · June 30, 2015 1:10 AM

Endowment Value: $90.7 million (June 2018)

San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. It is a part of the California State University system. The endowment is managed by the San Francisco State University Foundation, which is an organization dedicated solely to philanthropy. 

In 2013, after working with student activists, the SF State Foundation voted unanimously to divest from all coal and tar sands companies, becoming the first public university and the first school on the west coast to do so. It also committed to researching the possibility of divestment from all fossil fuel companies.

In 2015, the SFSU Board was in the process of allocating $5 million to establish a green fund, as well as establishing a $500,000 student-managed investment fund. The goal of the student-managed fund is to expose students of different academic backgrounds to different aspects of SRI investing—for example, exposing business students to ESG principles or exposing environmental science students to finance. The SF State Foundation also conducted a carbon footprint of its portfolio and will measure the change in its footprint over time.

In 2016, SFSU partnered with IEN to host the Intentionally Designed Endowments Forum with the goal to advance the conversation on endowment investing by bringing together campus decision makers such as presidents, trustees, CFOs, CIOs, and others from campuses in California and the region.

 

San Francisco State University is a participant or member of the following Initiatives & Commitments: 

Other Sustainable Investing Practices:

Resources from SFSU:

 

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Stanford University

Posted on Endowment Snapshots by · June 16, 2015 11:09 AM

Endowment Value: $26.4 billion (June 2018)

Stanford University is a private university, located in Stanford, California with approximately 17,000 students. The Stanford Management Company (SMC) and Board of Trustees oversee the endowment. Stanford is currently one of only six higher education institutions to earn the highest rank in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS), due to its significant efforts to integrate positive social and environmental impact across its curriculum, operations, and investments.

Since its first adoption of a statement on investor responsibility in 1971,Stanford has recognized its responsibility as an investor and has periodically outlined and updated policies to guide its commitment to responsible investment in a contemporary context. The SMC’s Ethical Investment Framework was adopted in 2018 to govern and compliment this existing statement. According to the framework, investment decisions are guided based on the understanding that businesses are far more likely to endure, and to generate sustainable returns on investor capital, when they behave with due regard for the welfare of their stakeholders

and the communities in which they operate. Stanford currently has a Special Committee on Investment Responsibility (SCIR) of the Board of Trustees as well as Investment Responsibility and Stakeholder Relations (IRSR) office to review proposals submitted within the community and function as an ad-hoc, issue-based fact-finding committee responsible for research and campus engagement where needed.

As such, Stanford’s efforts to address environmental, social, and governance issues through its management of its endowment has manifested in actions such as adopting a climate change proxy voting guideline to support resolutions for companies to analyze levels of greenhouse gas emissions and develop plans to reduce and/or eliminate them. With regards to divestment, Stanford has also adopted policies that preclude owning specific companies with operations implicated in Sudanese human rights abuses, the tobacco industry, and companies whose principal business is coal mining for electricity.

Stanford has recently committed $10 million over a 10-year period beginning in 2018 to develop an expanded platform of educational and research opportunities for students and faculty with interests in responsible, sustainable and impact investing and governance.

 

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

Other Sustainable Investing Practices:

 

Brandeis University

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

Endowment Value: $1.04 billion (June 2018)

Brandeis University is a private college, with campuses located 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 the Brandeis officially announced the Board of Trustee’s decision to adopt a coal divestment policy. Furthermore, the president’s announcement also stated that The Investment Office and the board’s Investment Committee would take proactive measures to focus on finding investments in renewable energy sources and technologies focused on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and other causes of climate change.

 

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

 

Other Sustainable Investing Practices:

Humboldt State University

Posted on Endowment Snapshots by · April 12, 2015 4:01 PM

Endowment Value: $30.85 million (June 2018)

Humboldt State University is a part of the California State University System, located in Arcata, California. The Humboldt State University Advancement Foundation (HSUAF) oversees the endowment andscreens certain industries from its direct investments, including fossil fuels. It is currently working on reducing indirect investments in said industries.

In 2013, students approached the HSUAF at an associated students meeting to advocate for further divestment from fossil fuels. In response, the HSUAF took many steps to further advance its tradition of environmental sustainability. The Social and Environmentally Responsible Offset Policy (SEROP) and Pledge were adopted in April of 2014, making HSU the first state University in the US to commit to full fossil fuel divestment. That same year,, the HSUAF decided to direct 10% of its portfolio into green funds and explored creating a “Green Challenge,” allowing for another 10% of the portfolio to be shifted to green funds for every $500,000 donated to the endowment.

In 2016, HSU Office of Sustainability published a comprehensive Climate Action Plan that outlines more than 50 action items to achieve its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. HSU also became a Charter Signatory for the Campus Climate Commitment, which encompasses the goals of achieving both carbon neutrality as well as improving community resilience. HSU joined over 680 higher education institutions in the nation.

 

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

  • IEN Founding Member (2016)
  • AASHE STARS: Yes, Gold
  • ACUPCC: Yes, Climate Neutral By 2050
  • Billion Dollar Green Challenge: No
  • CDP: No
  • Committee for Investor Responsibility: No
  • Divestment Goal: Yes, Partial
  • INCR: No
  • Montreal Carbon Pledge: No
  • Sustainable Investment Fund: No
  • Sustainable Investment Policy: Yes
  • Principles for Responsible Investment: Yes

 

Other Sustainable Investing Practices:

 

Amherst College

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

 

Endowment Value: $2.378 billion (June 2018)

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

Currently Amherst partners with 73 sustaining investment managers, who in turn invest in public stocks, bonds, real estate, private companies and natural resources and other assets. Each of these independent managers operates with full discretion to buy, sell or trade a range of securities. Amherst looks to invest with managers who thoughtfully and consistently incorporate ESG factors into their investment diligence and process. The Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees and the Office of Investment have the important task of determining to which investment partnerships the College should allocate its capital. As a practical matter, the College does not have the ability to direct these firms on which specific securities to buy or to avoid, as Amherst’s assets are almost always invested in partnerships alongside other investors. However, Amherst does have a point of view and a responsibility to encourage its investment partners to “thoughtfully and consistently incorporate environmental considerations into the investment process.” The College wields soft influence here that is real. Investment managers are aware that sustainability is a key diligence criterion. 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 our campus energy intensity. These actions have resulted in a 30 percent reduction in emissions from 2006 levels.

In 2015, the Amherst College Board of Trustees approved a Statement on Sustainability and Investment Policy, which acknowledged the grave threat posed by climate change, and supported the development of a strategy for achieving a carbon-neutral footprint on campus. The statement committed the College to “adopt policies that embed sustainability in its operations, in its investment process and its life as a community,” and stipulated that progress be regularly reported to the Amherst community. In 2017, the College also developed a plan to to go “beyond carbon neutral,” which would apply a carbon tax to Amherst’s business-as-usual emissions in 2035 and spend that annual amount now to fund projects that will decarbonize the campus.

To further their engagement with other higher education, as well as investment organizations, Amherst has partnered with Ceres, a nonprofit organization advocating for sustainability leadership, through membership in its Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR). "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 in the Paris Agreement promise.

Proxy Voting Policy - Amherst College continues to use the voting rights attached to the shares of companies in which it invests 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.

 

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

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

Other Sustainable Investing Practices:

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