Events

Beyond Divestment: Responsible Investment Strategies for Universities and Colleges

June 5, 2015 | Vancouver, BC

As part of Responsible Investment (RI) Week in Canada, we are hosting a roundtable discussion about the steps that higher education institutions are taking to address sustainability issues in their endowment investments.

The aim of the event is to identify strategies for shifting the discussion on campus beyond divestment and towards the full spectrum of RI initiatives.

The event brings together university and college business officers, treasurers, trustees and governing board members from public and private universities and colleges across British Columbia. Participation is by invitation only.

Emphasis will be placed on fostering small group dialogue and identifying opportunities for cross-university collaboration on RI initiatives. Participants will have the opportunity to share their experiences with a wide range of investment strategies to address sustainability issues that present material risks and opportunities to their endowments.

If you have any questions about the event, please contact Heather Hachigian (hhachigian [at] gmail.com) or Priya Bala Miller (pbalamiller [at] gmail.com).

CURI Advisory Board Members Address Responsible Investing Issues at UVIC

How can institutional investors, like pensions and endowments, meet their financial needs while benefiting their communities and the wider world? That’s the question that CURI Advisory Board members Peter Chapman (SHARE) and Ben Richardson (UBC Faculty of Law), along with Christine Bergeron (VanCity) answered on Nov. 6th at a panel hosted by UVic student group CommonEnergy and supported by the Centre for Cooperative and Community Based Economics, the University of Victoria Sustainability Project, and the University of Victoria Student Society.

The event was part of a ongoing campaign by CommonEnergy members to encourage UVic to incorporate responsible investment strategies into their endowment and pension funds. This campaign had played a role in the endowment board’s decision over the summer to ask their fund managers to consider environmental, social and governance factors and to report annually on proxy vote use. The Nov. 6th event was a catalyst for conversation and will push the campaign forward to more engagement with staff, faculty, and students.

For more information, contact Matt Hammer: permaculture.matt@gmail.com

CURI Supports Community Learning at UBC

We are excited to report on a productive four-month partnership with UBC’s Community Service Learning (UBC-CLI) Initiative. UBC-CLI and CURI share a passion for engaging students, faculty, staff, and community to find collaborative solutions to complex community-based challenges.

Our partnership with UBC-CLI involved hosting a team of three undergraduate students enrolled in a fourth-year seminar on Global Civil Society offered through the Political Science Department.

The course is geared towards providing students an insider view of how civil society organizations are run, their aspirations for a sustainable and just future, their tactics, funding structure and ethical dilemmas.  While students are placed with community organizations they also develop a deeper understanding of specific sustainability challenges.

Through a co-creative and output-oriented process, we worked with students to produce two resources that will directly support CURI’s ability to better connect with university communities.

2011 Inaugural Symposium Video & Report

CURI’s 2011 Inaugural Symposium

Canadian universities are leaders in integrating sustainability and social considerations into their purchasing policies, campus planning, and research agendas. However, their leadership in applying these same values to their investments is lacking compared to European and American universities.

Omar Dominguez, CURI’s co-founder, stated that adopting responsible investing practices is not just about ethics as it also makes sense financially in the long term. “Universities are endangering more than their reputations,” said Mr. Dominguez. “They are also putting endowments and pension funds at risk.”

CURI Releases Strategic Plan

CURI is excited to announce the release its strategic plan for 2011-2013. The plan sets out CURI’s mission, vision, values, objectives and implementation strategies for achieving positive change and long-term sustainability. Although the challenge of achieving sustainable development is complex and multi-layered, university investment decision makers and their stakeholders have a vital role to play in achieving this objective, particularly if they can act effectively within their own sphere of influence. As such, our approach is underpinned by a commitment to multi-stakeholder dialogue and responsiveness. Please click here to learn more about CURI’s approach and plan of action over the coming year.