February 21, 2013, 2:35 pm
By Allie Bidwell
Student-led campaigns urging colleges and universities to divest their stockholdings in fossil-fuel companies have materialized in recent months on more than 230 campuses. Nearly 200 student organizers from across the country will gather this weekend at Swarthmore College, in Pennsylvania, for a conference that leaders hope will unify the movement.
Nearly two years ago, students at Swarthmore began pushing the liberal-arts college to sell off its endowment holdings in fossil-fuel companies. Many students campaigning nationwide for divestment say that removing university financial backing from such companies can be a way to combat climate change caused by greenhouse-gas emissions from burning fossil fuels.
In the fall of 2010, Swarthmore’s divestment group visited a group in West Virginia led by Larry Gibson, an environmental activist who died last September, according to Sachie…
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January 29, 2013, 5:51 pm
By Lee Gardner
College-endowment managers who resist the growing call to divest their holdings in fossil-fuel companies may be doing so for little or no financial reason, according to a new report.
An analysis released on Tuesday by the Aperio Group, an investment-management firm that offers its clients a “socially responsible index,” among other investment strategies, found that while divesting from fossil-fuel companies does not necessarily add value to a portfolio, it does not subtract value from it either, and it increases the risk to investors at such a modest level as to be negligible.
In recent months, student groups at more than 200 colleges across the country have begun pushing their institutions to divest from fossil-fuel companies. A handful of smaller institutions, including Unity College and Hampshire College, have recently adopted strategies to reduce their investments in such…
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