Dalhousie University
PA-10: Sustainable Investment

·       All fund managers have formal (online) ESG policies and/or are signatories to the PRI.

·       ESG factors are included in the assessments of investment opportunities. Reports on ESG factors are provided to the Dalhousie Investment Committee. Managers use their own rating systems and services such as Sustainalytics. Strategies include selecting companies that are performing well to meet return targets and factors such as ESG. No negative screen is being used (ex. Divestment policy).

·       The University does not currently have an internal rating system or framework for what constitutes exemplary business sustainability performance thus the following proxy calculation has been created. At Dalhousie all investment decisions should be including ESG factors.

·       Dalhousie engaged an external service provider to provide a risk assessment semi annually (Mar 31, and Sept 30) on the portfolio. Included in this assessment is an ESG rating for each manager that has publicly traded funds. (MSCI ESG Ratings). This assessment also provides a few carbon emission calculations for our reference. The two calculations are Emissions intensity (total Capital) calculated as metric tonnes/$ million total Capital and Emissions Intensity (Sales) calculated as metric tonnes/$ million sales. 

·       At March 31, 2024 the public holdings that were rated AAA or AA by MSCI ESG ratings, which is considered to be industry leaders represented 50% of the public holdings market value or ($585,190,000 * 50.0% = $298,446,900. Within the private placement holdings $3,434,200 was held in sustainable industries. As well, Dalhousie invested in a private Renewable Energy fund in 2019. The commitment is 11 million Euros and to date 84.2% has been called ( $14,750,900). In 2020, Dalhousie subscribed to a Private Environmentally Sustainable Fund which is 66% called at March 31, 2024 with a market value of $9,763,100. Finally, in 2022 Dalhousie subscribed to an Infrastructure Fund which has a large focus on renewable energy. At March 31, 2024 35% of the fund was invested in renewable energy or $1,451,489.  

·       In 2023, Dalhousie subscribed to an infrastructure fund that has a focus on renewable energy but as of March 31, 2024 no capital had been called.

·       To note the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation integrated with Dalhousie’s Endowment in 2022 however during the transition it was decided that DMRF would follow their current Statement of Investment Policies and Procedures, so those assets have not been included in the above numbers.

·       Information on investment types and managers is available in the annual investment report:

See additional reports:

http://www.dal.ca/dept/university_secretariat/board_of_governors/reports.html

Community development financial institutions (CDFI) or the equivalent: No CDFI holdings as The University does not benefit from this tax investment strategy

Socially responsible mutual funds with positive screens or the equivalent: Do not invest in mutual funds.

Green revolving loan funds: $0 from the endowment; however, money is invested annually from operations related funding for on-campus sustainability projects. Since 2009, $96 million has been invested in sustainability related projects.

In the Dalhousie University’s investment policy section 5.8 identifies “The Endowment Funds will encourage its external investment managers to develop and enhance their ESG assessment capabilities. The Administration will include ESG assessment progress and capabilities in each investment manager’s annual review.”

The Investment Policy provides direction for investment managers to report on ESG proxy voting. “Section - 13.6 The Investment Committee or Administration will require the Investment Managers to provide a summary of how proxies have been voted. This report shall also disclose any ESG issues that may have arisen and how this ESG issue has impacted positively or negatively the exercise of any proxy vote” e.g. votes related to climate change.

Dalhousie encourages external investment managers to include ESG factors in their evaluations. Managers do not utilize negative screening.

Dalhousie participates in the Responsible Investing Association and CAUBO sessions on sustainable investment and other conferences as on-going.

Dalhousie became a signatory to the PRI in June 2019.

Dalhousie was one of 15 Canadian Universities to sign on to the Climate Change Charter – further details on the charter can be found here.

https://www.dal.ca/dept/treasury-investments/endowments/climate-change-charter.html