To: The Wellesley College Community
From: Debby Kuenstner, Chief Investment Officer
Re: Update on Wellesley’s Response to Climate Change
Date: February 9, 2021
Since November 2019, Wellesley students, faculty, staff, and trustees have been engaged in work regarding the community’s collective responses to climate change. As we begin the spring semester, I want to give you an update on that work.
Last February, students from Renew Wellesley and a group of faculty members presented formal requests to the board of trustees’ Subcommittee for Investment Responsibility (SIR) asking that the College take action to reduce exposure to fossil fuel companies in the endowment portfolio. SIR met four times that month to evaluate the requests and formulate a recommendation to the Investment Committee about endowment actions as well as community actions that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Investment Committee discussed SIR’s recommendations at its March meeting. Although the committee was favorably disposed toward taking endowment action, its members decided to defer making any recommendations to the board until students, faculty, and staff had time to respond.
Since then, several groups have done significant work in response to SIR’s call for community-wide action.
As promised, the endowment portfolio exposure to fossil fuels has been reported. In addition, the Investment Office has made no new commitments to private equity oil and gas funds.
During the fall of 2020, the students taking Econ/Environmental Studies 199 assessed carbon reduction measures that could be sponsored by the student body. In December, College Government voted to consider the class’s recommendations, and the Investment Committee discussed its report, “Meeting the Moment, Community Engagement and Fossil Fuel Divestment at Wellesley.”
On a parallel track, in March 2020, Academic Council voted to ask the 2020–2021 Sustainability Committee to identify concrete actions to reduce fossil fuel consumption and to offset the opportunity cost created by endowment actions related to fossil fuel companies. Over the last several months, the Sustainability Committee has worked with the EC/ES199 students to develop recommendations for actions that faculty and staff could sponsor. They plan to present a preliminary report at an upcoming Academic Council meeting.
As part of last week’s board meetings, SIR invited members of the Sustainability Committee to join the meeting. After a productive discussion, SIR passed the following resolution:
The Subcommittee on Investment Responsibility is encouraged by the work done by students, faculty, and staff to evaluate actionable ideas they can sponsor to reduce carbon emissions. The Subcommittee urges all groups to adopt recommendations so that Wellesley can move forward with a community-wide approach to the critical challenges posed by climate change.
At a separate meeting, the students of EC/ES199 made a presentation to trustees, faculty members of board committees, and members of the Sustainability Committee.
This semester, broader discussions related to concrete measures to reduce Wellesley’s carbon footprint are planned. In March, the E2040 task force, led by Laura Daignault Gates ’72, former chair of the board, will hold a forum to share the conclusions of its planning work regarding how to reduce the College’s greenhouse gas emissions (date to be announced). The students of EC/ES199 will work with College Government to share their recommendations and answer students’ questions ahead of a College Government vote later this spring. And the Sustainability Committee will incorporate feedback from Academic Council into a set of recommendations for the council to vote on later this spring.
I am hopeful that progress on student, faculty, and staff actions will come together in time for board votes in April on the E2040 plan and endowment action. In the meantime, I’d be happy to answer questions.
