| This encouraging word comes from the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. AASHE is a great organization to keep tabs on for study, work, and issue advocacy opportunities. (You can sign up for email updates on their website.) |
Fossil fuel divestment campaigns are active at about 50 U.S. campuses , and many more are expected to launch in coming weeks. Earlier this month, the Board of Trustees at Unity College voted to divest their endowment from fossil fuel industries. And last year Hampshire College (MA) passed a sustainable investment policy that effectively divested endowment funds from fossil fuels. More recently, the Harvard College Undergraduate Council announced 72 percent of voting students want Harvard University to divest its $30.7 billion endowment from fossil fuels. The divestment movement has increasingly received national exposure due in part to Bill McKibben’s 21-city Do the Math tour. A recent Boston Globe op-ed by McKibben and Mark Orlowski, executive director of the Sustainable Endowments Institute, calls on colleges to make no new investments in fossil fuels, “wind down” current investments in five years, and invest in increasing their own energy efficiency for a greater return.
See also: Students Call for Divestment from the Fossil Fuel Industry
See also: Colleges Divest from Fossil Fuels
See also: Do the Math: Invest While We Divest