Luther College
PA-9: Sustainable Investment

Mercer is the group responsible for managing Luther College's investments. They reported that of the $500,000 + dollars we have invested through them, $14,815 is invested in sustainable industry in the following ways: $3,378 is from Park Street Natural Resources II, invested in a renewable energy fund. $11,436 is from Park Street Natural Resource III, which is invested in a fund called Ecosystem Investment Partners. The description from Ecosystem Investment Partners’ website is as follows, “Ecosystem Investment Partners is a unique private investment manager that delivers the highest quality ecological restoration and conservation projects across the U.S. Through our investment funds, we acquire, restore and permanently protect priority conservation properties, and sell the mitigation credits we generate to customers who must offset their unavoidable environmental impacts.” Luther currently has $1,032,154 in a Climate Action Fund. The purpose of the Climate Action Fund is to provide necessary financial resources for Luther to achieve the goals in its Climate Action Plan, especially Luther's emission reduction targets adopted by the Board of Regents in 2012. (See attached for Climate Action Fund Spending Policy). Total value of investment pool for this credit differs from the amount reported for our endowment in IC-2 because we chose to include the value of our Climate Action Fund in this credit. These are non-endowment dollars.

Luther College Social Responsibility Statement The College's investment objective is to provide sufficient financial resources to sustain a prudent spending policy in support of scholarships, professorships, teaching, research and other purposes, while preserving the real value of the Endowment. To accomplish the objective, the Endowment must be invested and earn a rate of return, over the long-term, that exceeds inflation, a prudent spending amount, and investment management fees and related expenses. The Endowment typically invests through the use of commingled pools to reduce management fees and transaction costs, increase diversification, and to allow the manager to vote proxies in the best interest of the investors. Commingled pool investors are unable to customize the investment selection process since funds are invested in the manner provided by the investment manager. For donors with responsibility concerns, the College provides socially responsible investment options that they may select or designate. We are not including this as a "sustainable investment policy" because it is more of a statement than a policy. This statement was developed and approved by the Board of Regents in February 2016.