Overall Rating Reporter - expired
Overall Score
Liaison Carrie Metzgar
Submission Date March 2, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of California, San Diego
PA-8: Committee on Investor Responsibility

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete Reporter Amy Jaffe
Senior Advisor to the Chief Investment Officer
University of California Office of the President
"---" 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:

In September 2014, aligning UC's investments arm with the goals of the broader institution, the Office of the Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) developed and adopted a framework on sustainable investing. The framework, developed with input from the UC Board of Regents, UC students, faculty, staff, and other stakeholders, is designed to guide the process of evaluating environmental sustainability, social responsibility and governance (ESG) into the investment evaluation process of the OCIO with the same weight as other material risk factors influencing investment decision making. In 2017 UC adopted additional policy to strengthen its ESG framework.

UC's ESG framework and mission are described at:

http://www.ucop.edu/investment-office/sustainable-investment/index.html

Within UC's institutional governance process, these important ESG policy decisions are reviewed by the Investment Committee and the entire governing board - UC's Board of Regents, which makes all investment policy decisions. This decision-making body includes students (a Student Regent and a Student Regent-Designate), faculty, and staff representation. Social and environmental responsibility are an explicit part of its mission and a regular part of its agenda.

In our investment policy statement, we have incorporated a sustainability objective which can be found below:

The Office of the Chief Investment Officer shall incorporate environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and governance (ESG) into the investment evaluation process as part of its overall risk assessment in its investments decision making. ESG factors are considered with the same weight as other material risk factors influencing investment decision making.

The Office of the Chief Investment Officer uses a proprietary sustainability framework to provide core universal principles that inform the decisions and assist in the process of investment evaluation. The Office of the Chief Investment Officer manages the GEP consistent with these sustainability principles. The Framework can be found on the Office of the Chief Investment Officer website in the sustainability section.


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):

Regents membership can be found at the link below

http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/about/members-and-advisors/index.html

Maria Anguiano
Richard C. Blum
William De La Peña, M.D.
Gareth Elliott
Howard "Peter" Guber
George Kieffer - Chair
Sherry L. Lansing
Hadi Makarechian
Paul Monge
Eloy Ortiz Oakley
Lark Park
John A. Pérez - Vice Chair
Bonnie Reiss
Richard Sherman
Ellen Tauscher
Bruce D. Varner
Charlene Zettel
Jerry Brown - Governor of California and ex officio Regent
Gavin Newsom - Lieutenant Governor and ex officio Regent
Anthony Rendon - Speaker of the Assembly and ex officio Regent
Tom Torlakson - State Superintendent of Public Instruction and ex officio Regent
Janet Napolitano - President of the University and ex officio Regent
J. Alberto Lemus - Alumni Regent
Francesco Mancia - Alumni Regent
Darin Anderson - Alumni Regent designate
Devon Graves - Student Regent-designate
Jason Morimoto - Alumni Regent-designate
Shane White - Faculty Representative
Robert May - Faculty Representative
Rafael Sands - Student Advisor
Jason Valdry - Staff Advisor
Sherry Main - Staff Advisor-designate


Examples of CIR actions during the previous three years:

In September 2015, the UC Regents voted to adopted a sustainable investment framework. Over the past two years, we've worked to further implement the framework for sustainable investing we created in 2015, taking bold steps to fully integrate the consideration of ESG factors systematically and holistically into our investment evaluation and risk-assessment processes.

We are in the process of incorporating sustainability objective into investment policy statement. With the following proposed language:

The Office of the Chief Investment Officer shall incorporate environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and governance (ESG) into the investment evaluation process as part of its overall risk assessment in its investments decision making. ESG factors are considered with the same weight as other material risk factors influencing investment decision making.

The Office of the Chief Investment Officer uses a proprietary sustainability framework to provide core universal principles that inform the decisions and assist in the process of investment evaluation. The Office of the Chief Investment Officer manages the GEP consistent with these sustainability principles. The Framework can be found on the Office of the Chief Investment Officer website in the sustainability section.

Over the past 12 months we've actively engaged with all our external managers, new and old, to convey sustainability concerns and to stay in alignment. We've also improved our automated system for creating and conveying ESG restriction lists to our external managers. In addition, we are actively pursuing investment opportunities in and around the themes that we have identified in our framework for sustainable investment - themes we see as being important macro trends and drivers in the global economy.

Other actions include:

Sold (disinvestment, not formal divestment exclusion) publicly traded securities in coal mining and oil sands focused companies. Sold publicly traded securities of US private prison companies. Tightened criteria for screening securities of firearms manufacturers.

Co-filed shareholder resolutions on Aiming for A climate resilience for three diversified mining companies and ExxonMobil

Participating in Breakthrough Energy Coalition, led by Bill Gates, to promote investment in climate solutions, first American University to participate

Participating in two new investment funding vehicles that facilitate investing in clean tech and climate solutions including the Aligned Intermediary

Tabulated and published the carbon footprint of the UC Regents public equities portfolio

Signed the Paris Pledge as part of participation in COP 21

Participating in active engagement groups that engage with Fortune 500 companies on issues of importance to UC stakeholder community.

Signatory to Japan Stewardship code


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:

http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/governance/policies/index.html#policy-series-6000

http://invest.universityofcalifornia.edu/opportunity.html (see sustainable investing section)

The committee's policy on proxy voting is outlined here:
http://www.ucop.edu/investment-office/sustainable-investment/active-ownership/index.html

In support of the Finance and Capital Strategies Committee (the "related Standing Committee"), the Investments Subcommittee shall consider, make recommendations, and act pursuant to matters pertaining to University investment strategy and operations, and pertaining to the review and reporting of investment results.

http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/governance/committee%20charters/Appendix%20C.html


http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/governance/policies/index.html#policy-series-6000

http://invest.universityofcalifornia.edu/opportunity.html (see sustainable investing section)

The committee's policy on proxy voting is outlined here:
http://www.ucop.edu/investment-office/sustainable-investment/active-ownership/index.html

In support of the Finance and Capital Strategies Committee (the "related Standing Committee"), the Investments Subcommittee shall consider, make recommendations, and act pursuant to matters pertaining to University investment strategy and operations, and pertaining to the review and reporting of investment results.

http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/governance/committee%20charters/Appendix%20C.html

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.