Responsible Investment

The Foundation believes taking ESG factors into consideration is expected to have a positive effect on long-term financial performance and risk-adjusted investment returns. 

The Foundation began actively integrating Responsible Investing and ESG into its investment decision making process in 2012. The Foundation regularly revisits its investment strategy to reflect these ESG principles. In 2021, the Foundation released a new Responsible Investment Policy to consider the opportunity and risk that climate change presents and focuses on decarbonisation across all investments and sectors.

Key elements of the policy include:

  • carbon footprinting – progress on achieving targets will be reported annually with review of the target at least once every five years;
  • ongoing engagement – continued participation in investor coalitions and collaborations to enhance ESG standards and disclosure requirements by joining the University Network for Investor Engagement (UNIE) and supporting the Task Force For Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD);
  • continued selection of investment managers committed to climate change who actively, often through proxy voting, engage with companies to drive down emissions and increase disclosure; and
  • increase impact investing – continued financing of sustainable projects like the new student housing and dining project which meets (LEED) V4 and passive house standards – the most rigorous global building standards for sustainability and energy efficiency.

 Please click here to see the full Responsible Investment Policy.image


University of Victoria and University of Victoria Foundation
Joint Statement
Responsible Investment

The University of Victoria and University of Victoria Foundation are excited to present our first Responsible Investment Reports. While the responsible investment journey started in 2012, these reports are intended to communicate and provide a summary of historical responsible investment activities and highlight our progress over the past year.


Dear UVic Community,
 
The University of Victoria (UVic) and University of Victoria Foundation (Foundation) are deeply dedicated to our collective responsibility to address climate and sustainability. Our campus community has demonstrated through actions and commitments a long-standing passion to respond to the climate crisis through its learning, research and operations. Operations include the investment of our assets and we therefore have a responsibility to manage our investments in ways that acknowledges and responds to climate risks and opportunities.
 
UVic oversees the working capital investments used for day to day operations while the Foundation oversees the investments used to fund endowments that are forever. While there will always be differences in the investment strategy, UVic and the Foundation are aligned in recognizing climate change as a key global issue of our time and in adopting Responsible Investing best practices.
 
We are excited to present the first Responsible Investment Reports for both UVic and the Foundation. While the responsible investment journey started in 2012, these reports are intended to communicate and provide a summary of historical responsible investment activities and highlight our progress over the past year. Responsible Investing, including climate change initiatives and carbon emissions disclosures, is a rapidly evolving area. UVic will continue to the work to implement its responsible investment policy in the coming year. The Foundation has committed to updating its investment policies to ensure material Responsible Investment risk and opportunity considerations, including climate change, are well integrated into the investment process across all asset classes. This work will be completed in 2021.
 
We are committed to engage and communicate with faculty, staff and students on this important issue and these reports will be prepared annually.
 
We look forward to continuing this important journey. 

 

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