On Friday the University of Mary Washington’s Board of Visitors formally requested the UMW Foundation Board revise its investment policy to further limit fossil fuel investments. This request comes weeks after the President’s Council on Sustainability report was released in early March. While this announcement might grab some headlines in the short term, the fine print of the official press release and report actually prove this announcement to be just another empty gesture.
The Board of Visitors’ resolution calls for an investment policy revision, not full divestment
The resolution requests that the UMW Foundation “revise its investment policy to limit discretionary fossil fuel investments to a range of two to four percent,” but says nothing about immediately dropping all fossil fuel stocks. In fact, the report acknowledges that fully eliminating fossil fuel investments is difficult, since it’s near impossible to determine which companies qualify.
The report admits that divestment would be a totally symbolic move for the school
The UMW endowment is already largely free of “Carbon 200” investments and the UMW committee report even states, “While we acknowledge that such a decision might be largely symbolic … we also think that it could nonetheless be of great worth.”
The “new” guideline won’t change anything about the current investment strategy
The press release states, “At present, the guideline recommended by the UMW Board will have no immediate impact on the Foundation’s investment strategy. According to an investment analysis provided by the UMW Foundation, the June 30, 2016 projected carbon exposure in the “Carbon 200” companies is less than one percent.”
With no tangible impact on the university’s $41.1 million endowment, portfolio, or investment strategy, the UMW Board of Visitor’s announcement reinforces what we already know: divestment might successfully grab a few headlines, but when it comes down to tangible change, it’s nothing more than a feel good gesture of no real consequence.
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