Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 65.89
Liaison Allie Schwartz
Submission Date Aug. 29, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Columbia University
PA-8: Committee on Investor Responsibility

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 April Croft
Associate Director, SRI & Finance Communications
Finance
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have a formally established and active committee on investor responsibility (CIR) that makes recommendations to fund decision-makers on socially and environmentally responsible investment opportunities across asset classes?:
Yes

The charter or mission statement of the CIR or other body which reflects social and environmental concerns or a brief description of how the CIR is tasked to address social and environmental concerns:

Columbia University has a formally established Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing (ACSRI) that advises the University Trustees on ethical and social issues that arise in the management of the investments in the University's endowment. However, it does not make recommendations to fund decision-makers on socially and environmentally responsible investment opportunities across asset classes.

Columbia's ACSRI was established as a permanent addition to the University in March 2000. The Committee's purpose is to advise the University Trustees on ethical and social issues that arise in the management of the investments in the University's endowment. The Committee will set its own agenda within the broad arena of socially responsible investing, and will, by formal vote of a majority of the Committee membership, make recommendations to the University Trustees on issues related to investments in the University's endowment, including but not limited to the exercise of the University's proxy-voting rights, shareholder initiatives, and portfolio screening.


Does the CIR include staff representation?:
Yes

Does the CIR include faculty representation?:
Yes

Does the CIR include student representation?:
Yes

Members of the CIR, including affiliations and role (e.g. student, faculty, staff, alumni):

To ensure that the Committee is broadly representative of the University community, its twelve voting members are drawn in equal proportion from students, faculty, and alumni of the University, and the process for the appointment of its members provides for balanced representation, over time, of the University's divisions and schools. Two University officers sit as non-voting members in addition to the twelve voting members.


Examples of CIR actions during the previous three years:

In addition to SRI proxy voting and maintaining ongoing negative screens, a bulk of the ACSRI's work over the past three years has been focused on reviewing fossil fuel and private prison operators divestment proposals submitted by members of the Columbia community. Based on the ACSRI's recommendations, the University Trustees have approved divestment/non-investment from private prison operators and companies deriving more than 35% of their revenue from thermal coal production. For more information, please see the ACSRI's annual reports and "Recent Issues" section on its website listed below.

http://finance.columbia.edu/files/gateway/content/sri/Final_Response_BCD.pdf


The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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