Joint Statement

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 the 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.

Click here to read the University of Victoria’s Responsible Investment Report

Click here to read the University of Victoria Foundation’s Responsible Investment Report