A divestment case study: How the University of Cambridge divested from fossil fuels
Driven by the university student protests across the country, divestment is a top topic in U.S. media today. I’m currently getting my Masters in Sustainability Leadership at the University of Cambridge. At our December 2023 workshop, I learned about the complexities of the university’s divestment from fossil fuel companies.
I was fortunate to have a small seminar class with the lead researcher on this effort, Dr. Ellen Quigley, who is a brilliant, passionate, and seasoned researcher. We dove deep into the research, which is hundreds of pages long and took years of concentrated, concerted effort to conduct and use to drive change. There were years of negotiation throughout the university that ultimately led to a university vote in accordance with governance parameters.
I was particularly interested in this topic at my December workshop at Cambridge because in late 2022 at the start of my group project for my program, I tried to completely divest my personal retirement funds from fossil fuels. I had a clear goal of divestment from fossil fuels, and only a few funds at two financial institutions (one from my current job and another for my roll-over accounts from retirement funding I earned at previous jobs). I planned to talk to someone at the financial institutions, make a few changes to my investments, and have my portfolio free from fossil fuels.
Divesting my own small retirement fund from fossil fuels was anything but simple. 18 months, many phone calls, emails, and hours of research later, and I still have some investments in fossil fuel companies despite all my efforts and time. It’s fewer than I had when I started this process, which is progress, but it’s not the perfect change I hoped for. My personal work to divest from fossil fuels is ongoing.
While the divestment process is complex, I wanted to use this post to provide a few insights from the efforts at Cambridge along with links to those who want to dive deeper into this topic and case study. This case study helped me learn more about the divestment process and informs me about how it could be utilized by university administrators, faculty, students, and alumni who want to be actively engaged in the management of a university’s endowment, overall financials, and operations. Of course, this is just one case study at one university and other divestment processes at other universities may differ in their journey and the results.
A clear goal
A clear goal focuses efforts and time. In the case of my retirement funds, I wanted to divest from fossil fuels. For the University of Cambridge, their goal was more nuanced than mine because of the size, complexity, signaling, varied stakeholder community, and potential consequences (intentional and unintentional) of their divestment. To make a decision, Cambridge needed to consider whether it could divest from fossil fuels without incurring significant costs and/or if it must do so in order to retain supporters and beneficiaries.
Activism takes many forms
A single goal can have many different tactics, and different players can share the same goal and adopt different tactics. Cambridge’s constituencies were united around the science that proves fossil fuels are driving climate change. The decision process for the university as a whole was about which specific actions to take — divesting, government action, and many other stakeholder engagement options.
The form(s) of activism best suited for any individual or organization has many considerations. Examples include organized protests, public letters and other media outreach, contact with elected and appointed officials and policy makers, local actions in a specific community (caring for a natural area through rewilding, replanting, regenerating, clean-ups, etc.), buying goods and services from companies that align with our values, running for elected or appointed office, having conversations with people in our community about our personal experiences, and starting, working, and volunteering for companies, organizations, and partners that align with our values. This is only a small list of possible actions.
One thing I’ve learned in this process is one form of activism is not better, nor more valid, than another. How, when, and why people engage in activism is impacted by many circumstances — our resources of time and money, where we feel we can best contribute and make an impact, personal and professional commitments, and our mental and physical health to name just a few.
Trade-offs, negotiations, and incremental progress
Another consideration in all divestment conversations is the topic of trade-offs and negotiations because it is rare (though perhaps not impossible) to find a perfect solution or action to a challenge we want to solve. As an individual, I only have to consider my own trade-offs. A university like Cambridge has many stakeholders to consider so their trade-offs and negotiations are much more complicated than mine as an individual.
A transition process is part of Cambridge’s plan to divest from fossil fuels. The University has committed to divestment from fossil fuels by 2030 and to achieving net zero by 2038. That net zero commitment is nearly 19 years after the discussions about fossil fuel divestment began in 2019.
Divestment with a clear goal, an agreement on specific tactics and actions, an understanding of trade-offs, negotiations, and incremental progress is a journey. It takes continuous efforts by many people over a long period of time. Lasting change is a collective, collaborative process of coalitions.
Here are the links I refer to in this post for easy access. I hope they’re helpful for anyone interested in learning more about divestment:
1.) Grace on Fossil Fuel Industry Ties: A report into the impacts of implementing the Grace on fossil fuel industry ties on Cambridge University’s mission (July 2023)
https://www.cam.ac.uk/notices/grace-on-fossil-fuel-industry-ties
2.) To Divest or to Engage? A Case Study of Investor Responses to Climate Activism (2020)
https://www.pm-research.com/content/iijinvest/29/2/10
3.) Divestment: Advantages and Disadvantages for the University of Cambridge (2020)
https://www.cam.ac.uk/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/sm6_divestment_report.pdf
4.) Cambridge to Divest from Fossil Fuels with net zero plan(2020)
https://www.cam.ac.uk/news/cambridge-to-divest-from-fossil-fuels-with-net-zero-plan