History at Smith

• Smithipedia: Divestment and the Occupation of College Hall (1987)
  “A number of shareholders with South African stock, including many universities, came to see divestment as a non-aggressive form of protest against the system, and began withdrawing their investments.” 
  

The Case for Divestment

• Better Future Project: “Why Divest from Fossil Fuels?”
  “Our schools invest in our future. Yet at the same time, they are supporting corporations that are actively threatening the future of all life on earth.”
  
• Go Fossil Free: Debunking Myths about Fossil Fuel Divestment
  “Campuses have a moral imperative to address climate change in a manner that is consistent with the urgency and severity of the crisis.” 
• University Business: Is Fossil Fuel Divestment a Wise Move?

The Financial Aspect of Divestment

• Joshua Humphreys, Ph.D.: Institutional Pathways to Fossil Free Investing: Endowment Management in a Warming World
  “Based on the real-world experiences of leading asset managers and asset owners that have successfully invested without reliance on fossil-fuel companies over the last decade, this paper charts three distinctive pathways for institutional investors to follow in order to transition their portfolios away from fossil fuels and toward investment opportunities in a cleaner, more sustainable future.”
• Bevis Longstreth: The Financial Case for Divestment of Fossil Fuel Companies by Endowment Fiduciaries
  “For fiduciaries, the planet’s present condition and trajectory pose major, and growing, portfolio risks.” 
  
• Aperio Group Study: Do the Investment Math: Building a Carbon Free Portfolio
  “empirical research has repeatedly shown that negative portfolio screening on a wide range of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues need not lead to performance trade offs.”
  
• Carbon Tracker Initiative: Carbon Bubble
• Carbon Tracker Initiative: Wasted Capital and Stranded Assets

Divestment in the News

• Rolling Stone: Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math
  “If [students’] college’s endowment portfolio has fossil-fuel stock, then their educations are being subsidized by investments that guarantee they won’t have much of a planet on which to make use of their degree.”
• The New York Times:  To Stop Climate Change, Students Aim at College Portfolios
• National Review: Fossil-Fuel Divestment
• Huffington Post: Philanthropy Rises to the Fossil Divest-Invest Challenge
• Huffington Post: Harvard and Brown Fail Moral Leadership Exam
• Harvard Faculty: Harvard Faculty Divest
• Rockefeller Brothers Fund: Divestment Statement
• The New York Times: Rockefellers, Heirs to an Oil Fortune, Will Divest Charity of Fossil Fuels
• Pitzer College: Pitzer College and Robert Redford Announce Breakthrough Fossil Fuel Divestment-Climate Action Model
• The New York Times: Stanford to Purge $18 Billion Endowment of Coal Stock
• BBC News: Glasgow University to Sell Its Fossil Fuel Investments
• The New School: New Climate Action Plan Includes Motion to Divest from Fossil Fuels
• Reuters: University of Maine Board Votes to Divest from Coal
• The Guardian: World’s Biggest Sovereign Wealth Fund Dumps Dozens of Coal Companies
  “Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), worth $850bn (£556bn) and founded on the nation’s oil and gas wealth, revealed a total of 114 companies had been dumped on environmental and climate grounds …”
• The Guardian: UN Backs Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign
• Syracuse: Syracuse University to Divest Fossil Fuel Investments
• The Guardian: Guardian Media Group to Divest Its £800m Fund from Fossil Fuels
• The Guardian: Oxford University rules out investing in coal and tar sands
• Seattle Times: In symbolic move, UW votes to divest from coal
• Rhode Island Public Radio: RISD To Divest From Fossil Fuel
• Bloomberg: Georgetown Joins Stanford in Divesting Its Endowment From Coal
• Los Angeles Times: UC sells off $200 million in coal and oil sands investments
• The Guardian: Allianz to cut investments in companies using coal in favour of renewable energy
• San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. retirement fund ditching coal stocks
• Los Angeles Times: UC system divests $30 million in prison holdings amid student pressure
• Richmond Times: University of Mary Washington officials vote to end investment in fossil fuel companies
• Boston Globe: UMass endowment to sell off holdings of fossil fuel industry
• Huffington Post: Berlin Is The Latest City To Pull Out Of Fossil Fuels
• Baltimore Sun: University System of Maryland to direct its endowment away from fossil fuels