Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 64.62
Liaison Sarah Fortner
Submission Date March 3, 2022

STARS v2.2

Carleton College
PA-10: Sustainable Investment

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.14 / 5.00 Alexandra Miller
Sustainability Program Coordinator
Energy and Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1. Positive sustainability investment

Total value of the investment pool:
1,200,000,000 US/Canadian $

Value of holdings in each of the following categories:
Value of holdings
Sustainable industries (e.g., renewable energy or sustainable forestry) 6,000,000 US/Canadian $
Businesses selected for exemplary sustainability performance (e.g., using criteria specified in a sustainable investment policy) 0 US/Canadian $
Sustainability investment funds (e.g., a renewable energy or impact investment fund) 2,000,000 US/Canadian $
Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) or the equivalent 0 US/Canadian $
Socially responsible mutual funds with positive screens (or the equivalent) 0 US/Canadian $
Green revolving funds funded from the endowment 0 US/Canadian $

If any of the above is greater than zero, provide:

A brief description of the companies, funds, and/or institutions referenced above:
We estimate that approximately 2-2.5% of the endowment is invested in renewable energy, including wind, solar, and water.

Percentage of the institution's investment pool in positive sustainability investments:
0.67

Part 2. Investor engagement

Sustainable investment policy 

Does the institution have a publicly available sustainable investment policy?:
Yes

None
A copy of the sustainable investment policy:
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None
The sustainable investment policy:
While Carleton does not have a sustainable investment policy, the College aims to invest with managers whose standards of propriety, fairness, and ethical integrity align with those of the College. The College tries to select managers that will generate superior returns, but not at all costs, and make investments in a responsible manner that takes into account societal impacts.

We have an ESG policy that is online at the CRIC website. Embedded into our ESG.

None
Does the institution use its sustainable investment policy to select and guide investment managers?:
Yes

A brief description of how the sustainable investment policy is applied:
ESG policy guides our selection process. Part of due diligence memos, a key component of our work that we send to our investment committee (BoT).

The Investment Office will incorporate environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and governance (ESG) factors into the Investment Manager Selection Process by assessing the manager’s hiring practices and policies, ethics and integrity, partnership structure, and governance, as well as understanding the manager’s philosophy and process on ESG investing and conducting a general review of the manager’s underlying holdings from an ESG perspective. The Investment office will incorporate its evaluation of each manager’s ESG factors in the manager selections memos presented to the Investment Committee prior to hiring a manager. ESG factors will also be considered in the Investment Office’s ongoing reviews of managers held in the Endowment portfolio.

ESG is added to our investment policy statement. The ESG piece is public.
https://www.carleton.edu/committees/responsible-investment/environmental-social-and-governance-esg-investing/

Proxy voting 

Has the institution engaged in proxy voting, either by its CIR or other committee or through the use of guidelines, to promote sustainability during the previous three years?:
Yes

None
A copy of the proxy voting guidelines or proxy record:
Proxy_voting_policy_summary.pdf

None
A brief description of how managers are adhering to proxy voting guidelines:
Carleton's investment office managers submit all votes as determined by the Carleton Responsible Investment Committee (CRIC).

Shareholder resolutions 

Has the institution filed or co-filed one or more shareholder resolutions that address sustainability or submitted one or more letters about social or environmental responsibility to a company in which it holds investments during the previous three years?:
Yes

Examples of how the institution has engaged with corporations in its portfolio about sustainability issues during the previous three years:
Carleton’s Responsible Investment Committee (CRIC) writes a letter to each corporation upon which Carleton has taken a proxy voting position. The letters call attention and explain the rationale behind Carleton’s vote. Examples of letters can be found at: https://apps.carleton.edu/governance/cric/engage/corps/

In addition to written letters, Carleton students have attended the annual meetings of corporations in its portfolio to publicly address their view on proxy issues. See this link for more information: https://apps.carleton.edu/governance/cric/articles/

Divestment efforts and negative screens

Does the institution participate in a public divestment effort and/or have a publicly available investment policy with negative screens?:
No

A brief description of the divestment effort or negative screens and how they have been implemented:
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Approximate percentage of endowment that the divestment effort and/or negative screens apply to:
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Investor networks 

Does the institution engage in policy advocacy by participating in investor networks and/or engage in inter-organizational collaborations to share best practices?:
Yes

None
A brief description of the investor networks and/or collaborations:
Carleton participates in a dialogue with several peer institutions and others to discuss various issues such as proxy voting, divestment, and ESG approaches.

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the institution’s sustainable investment efforts is available:
http://apps.carleton.edu/campus/investment/

Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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