Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 72.61
Liaison Jack Byrne
Submission Date May 1, 2014
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Middlebury College
PA-13: Committee on Investor Responsibility

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Jack Byrne
Director of Sustainability Integration
Environmental Affair
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Does the institution have a formally established and active committee on investor responsibility (CIR) or similar body that has multi-stakeholder representation (i.e. includes faculty, staff, and students) and otherwise meets the criteria for this credit?:
Yes

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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:
The Socially Responsible Investment club (SRI) promotes the use of finance as a tool for social change. It does so by encouraging the administration to invest the College's endowment socially responsibly, be more transparent about invest practices and by using tools like shareholder activism and community investment to improve the society at large. It also aims to educate students and raise awareness about what socially responsible investing is and how it can help the school and the world.

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Members of the CIR, including affiliations and role (e.g. student, faculty, alumni):
Alexa Beyer '16.5 (co-president) Virginia Wiltshire-Gordon '16 (co-president) (student liaison to the Middlebury Trustees Sub-Committee on Investment) Allie Cohen '17.5 Wei Wei Magnuson '16 Sophie Kapica '17 Sophie Vaughn '16 Maeve Grady '17.5 Khi Chou '16 Teddy Smyth '15 Nathan Kowalski '15 Nate Cleveland '16.5 Josh Nislick '17 Jeannie Bartlett '15 Noel Antonisse '17 Tiffany Cheng '17 Mariah Levin '17.5 Jenny Chute '16.5 Meghan Colwell '16 Edward O’Brien '17 Alex Potter '17.5 Trevor Quick '15 Brenda Ellis (Staff)

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Examples of CIR actions during the previous three years:
The SRI has helped to lead recent divestment efforts and is working with the college President and administration to address this issues. In January 2013 a panel addressed divestment from fossil fuels and the discussion continued throughout the Spring in a series of forums. RISE, a new initiative from January 2014, demonstrates the positive effects of socially responsible investing and educates students about the sustainable investment process. Students are investing $150,000 into sustainable companies using environmental, social, and governance criteria. RISE is also aided by the use of the MSCI ESG data set which was purchased in January to aid our research. The group surveyed the student body about their opinions of using ESG criteria in the endowment. The results may be used in a presentation to Board members. The Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing has been working on the review of the Sustainable Investments Initiative (SII) using the MSCI dataset. The review has been waiting on transparency from the administration on the contents of the SII before it can be submitted or presented. SRI has been pushing the administration to continue to work on the President's commitment from the end of August 2013 to implement a stronger set of ESG principles in the endowment.

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The website URL where information about the CIR is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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