Warren Wilson College Finds Success Shifting Corporate Behavior by Filing Shareholder Resolutions and Voting Proxies 

This Briefing Paper: Warren Wilson College, Impacting How Companies Do Business , details how Warren Wilson College has influenced companies’ actions to compel real, positive change in corporate policies and practices.

Warren Wilson College (WWC) is a liberal arts college in North Carolina and a leader in environmental and social sustainability. In the past 5 years, WWC has focused on applying environmental and social equity lenses to the management of its endowment, including publicly committing to divest from fossil fuels and beginning to fully integrate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into the investment process.

In 2019, WWC began exploring active ownership as a way to expand the positive societal and environmental impact of its investments, while also reducing risks and maximizing returns in its endowment portfolio. You can read a background on WWC’s work implementing sustainable investing strategies, with a focus on shareholder engagement, in IEN’s 2020 resource: Active Ownership in the Endowment: Warren Wilson College Case Study. 

Through partnerships with As You Sow and the Intentional Endowments Network (IEN), WWC has made an impact by actively engaging the companies the endowment invests in, and as a result, can point to real change addressing the college’s two mission-driven focus areas: climate change and racial justice.

During the 2021-2022 engagement season (fall of 2021 through end of June of 2022), Warren Wilson College 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, As You Sow did not file 14 of the resolutions, as dialogue with each company prior to filing led to an agreement. As You Sow did file resolutions with 14 of the 32 authorized companies, and dialogue with 12 of the 14 companies where resolutions were filed led to impactful agreements that addressed the resolution request sufficiently for all outcomes at companies where WWC authorized engagements.

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.

Read the full briefing paper to learn more (pdf).

Acknowledgements

Warren Wilson College’s engagement work is a collective effort made possible through partnerships with the Intentional Endowments Network and As You Sow. The following people have played critical roles in both the implementation of the work outlined in this briefing paper, and the writing and review of this document:

Alice DonnaSelva, Former Senior Advisor on Shareholder Engagement, Intentional Endowments Network
Gail Follansbee, Shareholder Relations Manager, As You Sow
Ben Linthicum, ESG Advisory Committee Chair, Warren Wilson College
Rachel Lowy, Shareholder Relations Coordinator, As You Sow
Anthony Rust, Investment Committee Chair, Warren Wilson College
Nicole Torrico, Program Director, Intentional Endowments Network

Download the full report 

Warren Wilson College (WWC), a liberal arts institution located in Swannanoa, North Carolina, has established itself as a leader in environmental and social sustainability. From building the first LEED Platinum certified building on a college campus in 2003 to experiential learning on its 110 acre organic farm, WWC has fully integrated sustainability into all sectors of campus life and college operations. These efforts have resulted in WWC receiving several sustainability awards including Sierra Club’s 2007-2019 “Cool School” award and a Gold STARS rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) in 2020.

In the past 5 years, WWC has focused on intentionally applying environmental sustainability and social equity lenses to the management of its financial assets. In 2015, WWC’s student fossil fuel divestment campaigns motivated the school to reevaluate its endowment portfolio. Recognizing a misalignment between its core values and investments, WWC publicly committed to divest from fossil fuels within five years and to begin fully integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into the investment process.

In 2019, WWC began exploring active ownership as a way to expand the positive societal and environmental impact of its investments, while also reducing risks and maximizing returns in its endowment portfolio. Active ownership is one of the fastest growing responsible investment strategies. The Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI) defines active ownership as the use of rights and position of ownership to influence the activities or behavior of investee companies.1 It is a form of stewardship that allows investors to influence companies on their management of environmental, social, and governance risks and opportunities. In addition to investors mobilizing capital for positive impact by driving responsible corporate practices, active ownership is integral to fiduciary duty as it considers businesses’ long-term systemic risks.

In efforts to increase WWC’s active ownership practices, WWC’s ESG Advisory Committee engaged IEN to explore shareholder engagement strategies. With support from IEN’s Shareholder Engagement Working Group members and staff, WWC was able to actively vote all its proxies in its separately managed equity accounts and co-file three shareholder resolutions in support of environmentally responsible and socially equitable corporate practices. This collaboration provided WWC with the necessary knowledge and experience to continue leveraging its shareholder voice to influence companies’ practices. In the coming years, IEN plans to increasingly support endowments in embracing their role as active owners. 

Development of this case study was a collective effort of the Intentional Endowments Network and Warren Wilson College.The following people played critical roles in the research, writing, and review of this document:

Contributors:

Hannah Bowen, Network Manager, IEN
Alice DonnaSelva, Managing Director, IEN
Ben Linthicum, ESG Advisory Committee Chair, Warren Wilson College
Brian Liechti, Director of Sustainability, Warren Wilson College
Julia Maloney, Graduate Fellow, IEN
Anthony Rust, Investment Committee Chair, Warren Wilson College

This briefing is intended to provide nonprofit investment fiduciaries with an overview of how industry leaders are seeing fiduciary duty principles as a guide to alignment of investment practices with their nonprofit's mission goals.

Developed for the Intentional Endowments Network by Megan Jackson and Keith Johnson at Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c, February, 2017 as part of IEN's Fiduciary Duty Working Group. 

Download Leading Practice on Fiduciary Duties for Endowments and Foundations (pdf, February, 2017)  

The Intentional Endowments Network's "Engaging Investment Managers on Proxy Voting & Other Forms of Shareholder Engagement" document outlines potential questions for investment managers on their proxy voting and other shareholder engagement activities around ESG. To signal your endowment’s commitment to sustainability, your institution can share a list of questions, such as the one provided below, with both managers and advisors. Sharing your questions and interest in writing at the beginning of the dialogue will allow your managers and advisors an opportunity to prepare for an informed conversation on engagement. 

Click here to access the "Engaging Investment Managers on Proxy Voting & Other Forms of Shareholder Engagement" document. 

Thanks to the following IEN members for their input and feedback during the development of this document:

• Sarah Cleveland, Principal, Sarah Cleveland Consulting
• Alice DonnaSelva, Investment Consultant, Prime Buchholz
• Keith L. Johnson, Chairman, Reinhart Boarner Van Deuren
• Tom Mitchell, Managing Director, Cambridge Associates
• Jameela Pedicini, Director, Asset Management, Perella Weinberg Partners