2023 saw significant developments surrounding ESG investments, including lawsuits, political controversy, and increased regulatory scrutiny. Despite these challenges, ESG investment performance remains strong. As we look ahead to 2024, IEN spoke with Jeff Vilker, Director of Defined & Contribution at Impax Asset Management, on his thoughts on the state of ESG as we begin the year – 

“. . . . We see investor and plan participant interest in topics such as climate change, biodiversity and DEI increasing -- with climate being the top concern on many investor’s minds.”

Over 450 changemakers dedicated to advancing sustainability through higher education gathered to learn and exchange ideas over the course of the three-day conference. University presidents, endowment decision-makers, sustainability directors, students, and experts in the sustainable investing field were among those engaged in the Summit’s 45 total sessions, including numerous networking opportunities. Read a summary of the critical conversations that took place at the Summit on our blog.

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SAVE THE DATE!

On November 14, 2024, IEN will celebrate its milestone of 10 years as a network at Boston’s Museum of Science! This evening will be a celebration of the network’s growth, achievements, key contributors, and future goals. Stay tuned for more details.

The HBCU Climate Action Blueprint: Sustainable Campuses, Empowered Communities

The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and its Institute for Capacity Building recently published a detailed report that sheds light on the current sustainability practices and future goals of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The report outlines six key findings that can aid in the activation of HBCUs toward addressing climate change. It also provides a blueprint to support the activation of HBCUs' leadership in sustainability.  

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Data from the 2023 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments (NCSE) show that the endowments of 688 participating U.S. colleges and universities and affiliated foundations returned 7.7 percent, net of fees, for FY23 (July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023), a sharp reversal of the -8.0 percent return reported for FY22.

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Investing in Change: A Call to Action for Strengthening Private HBCU Endowments

While Ivy League institutions and many public universities boast endowments in the tens of billions of dollars, no Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have an endowment exceeding $1 billion — and the majority manage less than $100 million in assets. To better understand the challenges of HBCUs attempting to grow and manage their endowments, United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and PGIM partnered on this report to highlight the perspectives of 22 private HBCU endowment professionals, representing nearly one-third of all private HBCUs, on their experiences and the ways in which they use their resources to uplift students and their communities.

We’re excited to share that Paris Prince has been appointed Senior Director, Partnerships & Strategic Initiatives, at IEN!

Paris has made a significant impact toward IEN’s mission by leading the planning, management, and implementation of IEN’s justice, equity, diversity & inclusion (JEDI) Initiative, and we’re excited for their continued contributions to our collective work. Join us in congratulating Paris!  

IEN Members can access the following recent webinars through our member-only archive:

• IEN 2024 Climate Solutions Series: Fixed Income and Climate Solutions | Breckinridge Capital | February 27, 2 pm ET
  
  
• Natural Capital and Biodiversity with Schroders, CDP, and Green Century | January 18, 2024
  
  
• Investment Governance Call: Rethinking Fiduciary Duty | January 9, 2023 
  
  
• Accessing Pure-play Climate Solutions through Private Credit | Lombard Odier Investment Managers (LOIM) | Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Please join us for our upcoming IEN events:

• IEN 2024 Climate Solution Series: Infrastructure Investing for Climate Solutions | I Squared Capital | March 28, 11:00 am ET
• IEN 2024 Climate Solutions Series: Can public companies lead the transition to a low-carbon economy? | Terra Alpha | April 24, 1:00 pm ET
• Investment Governance Initiative Q3 Call | May 7, 2024, 2 pm ET
• IEN 2024 Climate Solutions Series: Sunwealth | May 22, 2024 | 1 pm ET
• IEN 2024 Climate Solutions Series: Community Solar – The Middle Market of the US Solar Industry with Aligned Climate Capital | June 25, 2024 | 2 pm ET
• IEN 10-Year Anniversary | November 14th, 2024, at Boston's Museum of Science

Other Events

• GreenFin24 | June 17 - 19, 2024,  Javits Center in NYC
• Impact Transparency: How to scale impact with integrity. Impact Verification and Schroders’ lessons learned | March 14, 2024, 11 am ET, Online
• Impact Investor Global Summit | May 14 - 15, 2024, Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, UK

The EIB is an assessment and ratings framework that enables endowments and foundations to demonstrate intentional leadership and earn recognition by reporting on their sustainable and impact investment strategies. Participants are awarded a rating based on their alignment with market standards and best practices (Participant, Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum). They also receive high-value feedback and recommendations on improving sustainable investing policies, and are able to benchmark their progress against that of their peers and access aggregated data of participating endowments.

The EIB was developed and piloted in 2023, and we now have 15 spots available for endowments and foundations to participate in the second cohort in 2024.  The feedback from the pilot was very positive, and participants found the comprehensive review helpful in improving their approach to mission-aligned sustainable investing. 

We are grateful for the support of the Tipping Point Fund and Sorenson Impact Foundation for making this work possible, and pleased to be partnering with BlueMark to carry out the verification and rating services.   

To indicate your interest in participating in the EIB, fill out this form, and reach out to Georges Dyer ([email protected]) and Nicole Torrico ([email protected]) to learn more about the EIB.

Our Sustainable Retirements panel at the 2024 Summit featured perspectives from asset managers, plan sponsors, and the Department of Labor. DOL representative Ali Khawar spoke on how the new DOL rule requires the need to be a prudent fiduciary in considering what is material and how to manage adverse returns while acting in the best interest of participants. 

Marina Severinovsky, Liana Magner, and Karen Manczko provided practitioner perspectives from Schroders, Natixis, and Wespath, respectively, detailing how messaging and context will help sustainable option uptake and demand from participants. 

We invite you to join the retirement listserv for updates on the Sustainable Retirements Initiative and reach out to Chris Walker at [email protected] to learn more.

Lead Sponsors

We are excited to announce that 13 universities will be participating in IEN’s 2024 Student Corporate Engagement Challenge! The participating student teams come from Cornell University, Columbia University, Bard College, Shenandoah University, University of Michigan, Felix Houphouet-Boigny University, Hampton University, Virginia Wesleyan University, Central Washington University, Smith College, University of Southern California, University of Minnesota, and the University of California Berkeley Haas. You can find more information about the Challenge in our recent blog post, and you can watch a video summary of last year's winning presentations on our website.

IEN's SIILK Network is also a proud partner of the Student Shareholder Engagement Network (SSEN), a group of undergraduate and graduate students who are committed to engaging as shareholders with companies in their university’s endowment portfolio.

Reach out to Bella Alvarez at [email protected] to learn more about the SIILK Initiative.

Supporting Sponsor:

IEN's Net Zero Endowments Initiative was discussed at the 2024 Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit, including panels on how to make and implement a net zero portfolio commitment, and how to align public equities exposure to strategies that reduce climate risk. 

These conversations will continue virtually throughout the year as part of IEN's 2024 Climate Solutions Investing Series, including upcoming discussions on infrastructure, the solar market, and the role of public companies in the transition. Our most recent conversation, with Breckinridge Capital Advisors, gave insights into their engagement strategy as diversified bond investors. 

We invite Network members to register for our next conversation and reach out to Aicha Ly at [email protected] with any questions

Lead sponsors

Supporting Sponsors

The JEDI Initiative strengthened relationships with HBCUs and furthered the conversation on JEDI investing at the 2024 Summit in several ways: 

• We hosted a workshop for a group of approximately 30 HBCU presidents, trustees, finance officers, development officers, and other administrators, along with experts in fundraising and asset management, to share best practices on strategies for growing revenue for HBCUs, with a focus on building endowments and mission-aligned investing,
• We expanded collaborations and deepened ties with UNCF, including by recognizing UNCF as a ‘Major Strategic Partner’ of the Summit, welcoming UNCF President and CEO Dr. Michael Lomax as a keynote speaker, and supporting the launch of UNCF’s new report ‘Investing in Change: A Call to Action for Strengthening Private HBCU Endowments,’ and
• IEN’s Senior Director of Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives, Paris Prince, also supported the development of UNCF's latest report, “The HBCU Climate Action Blueprint: Sustainable Campuses, Empowered Communities.”

Learn more about the JEDI Initiative, or reach out to Paris Prince at [email protected] with any questions.

Lead Sponsors 

IEN’s Investment Governance Initiative held its first virtual meeting of the year in January, featuring perspectives from the Commonfund Institute’s George Suttles and community investment consultant Rosalie Sheehy Cates. 

Suttles and Sheehy Cates presented their recent work on rethinking fiduciary duty and the ways it evolves with investment practices. They introduced their framework on the interactions between ‘Code, Culture, and Consequences’ to the audience for feedback and refinement.

We’re excited to continue these conversations into the future, including on our next Investment Governance call with representatives from The Investment Integration Project (TIIP) on May 7 at  2 pm ET. We invite Members to register for the call and reach out to Georges Dyer at [email protected] to learn more about the Initiative. 

In 2024, we continue to support Warren Wilson College’s (WWC) shareholder engagement work, including via direct engagement and proxy voting (you can read a briefing paper on WWC’s 2023 shareholder engagement work here).

We also continue to support endowments in learning about and signing up for the ESG-aligned proxy voting service As You Vote. We were thrilled to have Andy Behar, CEO of As You Sow, present on the power of proxy voting at our 2024 Summit and host an engaging dinner for Summit attendees to connect with each other and discuss how to leverage their power as shareholders.

To learn more about IEN’s Shareholder Engagement Initiative, reach out to Nicole Torrico at [email protected].

13 University Teams to Participate in Challenge Focused on Addressing Systemic Risk and Increasing Returns Through Shareholder Engagement | Intentional Endowments Network

• 13 teams from universities around the world will pitch an investment in a publicly traded company and include an engagement opportunity 2024 Student Corporate Engagement Challenge! 

IEN Q&A 2024 ESG and Sustainable Investing Trends: Impax's Asset Manager Perspective | Intentional Endowments Network

(Re)Calibrating Feedback Loops | The Investment Integration Project (TIIP)

• A new report from TIIP provides an overview of its new initiative – the (Re) Calibrating Feedback Loops project – and the ways investors can use impact and sustainability measurement frameworks to understand their influence on existing systems. 

Callan 2023 ESG Study Examines Investment Manager Practices | Callan

• Callan’s first-ever 2023 Asset Manager ESG Study gathered data from more than 1,200 managers across asset classes and states that non-US organizations are outpacing their US counterparts, including sustainability reporting, ESG proxy policies, and carbon footprinting. 

Diversity Matters Even More: The Case for Holistic Impact | McKinsey

• The latest report in McKinsey’s series examining the business case for diversity presents an optimistic outlook on equitable representation. It identifies companies that have attained “gender parity and equitable ethnic representation.”

Addressing Scope 3: A Start Here Guide Resource | Embedding Project

• A new report from Embedding Project provides an introductory guide to taking credible action around Scope 3 emissions, including understanding the role of carbon in the value chain, conducting a Scope 3 inventory, and verification and disclosure.

• VWU Hosts International Endowments Network Fall Forum
• UNCF Report Creates Blueprint to Activate HBCU Leadership in Climate Change and Sustainability | UNCF

Brown University Adds ‘Fossil Fuel-Free’ Offering to Faculty, Staff Retirement Plans l The Brown Daily Herald

• Brown University added a “fossil-free” mutual fund option to faculty and staff retirement plans in late December. The new offering — the Vanguard FTSE Social Index Fund Admiral — came in response to employee feedback.

McGill University Divests from Direct Holdings in Carbon Underground 200 Fossil-Fuel Companies; Announces New Socially Responsible Investment Commitments | McGill University

• McGill University has committed to divesting from all direct fossil fuel holdings in the Carbon Underground 200 companies, beginning in 2024 with a 2025 completion date. 

The California Endowment Will Plow Its Entire $4 Billion Into Mission Investments | Institutional Investor

• The California Endowment expects to announce its plan to move its entire $4 billion in AUM into mission-aligned investments.

Church of England Targets a New Group of Corporate Emitters | Bloomberg

• After committing to divest from Shell, the Church of England is turning its attention to the largest fossil fuel consumers in the utilities, auto, and steel sectors. 

Oregon Treasury Releases Plan to Reach Net Zero Carbon Emissions in State Pension Fund by 2050 | KTVZ

• The Oregon Treasury’s plan to reach net zero emissions in its state pension fund will require a 60% reduction in emissions by 2030; the Treasury plans to triple its climate-positive investments in private equity and real assets by 2035 and exclude new investments in private market funds that invest primarily in fossil fuels.