This FAQ page is designed to answer some of the questions students, staff and anyone else may have on the background to the University’s Socially Responsible Investment Policy’s approach to environmental concerns, and the recent discussion in our Council on a student motion to disinvest in fossil fuels. A statement on the outcome of those Council discussions can also be found here.

• What has University Council decided to do?
• What has the decision-making process been? Have students been involved?
• Does the University have investment funds in fossil fuel?
• What is the University's position regarding future investments?
• What else is the University doing to manage its carbon footprint?

What has University Council decided to do?

Today (8 July), University Council considered ideas brought forward by Warwick’s students on how the University’s socially responsible investment policy could approach the use of fossil fuels.

The Council meeting considered that debate and further suggestions on this issue made by the student representatives on the Council and resolved:

• To approve a revised Warwick “Socially Responsible Investment Policy”
• That the University should review annually the availability, financial viability and appropriateness of fossil free index-related funds for its investments in equities. Should these conditions be met, the University would then commit to replace the existing funds with investments in fossil free index-related funds in line with the SRIP criterion of corporate behaviour leading to environmental degradation.

What has the decision-making process been? Have students been involved?

Yes, students have been involved throughout the process; in June a number of Warwick students were invited to present a paper entitled “The Case for Fossil Fuel Disinvestment” to the Investment Sub-Committee of the University’s Council, while the ideas discussed at the full University Council meeting were put forward by the Students’ Union. The Union’s President and Democracy and Development Officer both took part in the meeting of Council.

Does the University have investment funds in fossil fuel?

The University has very few direct investments of any kind, and none In the companies on the Fossil Fuel 200 list. The strategy for the University’s Investment Fund is to hold a portfolio of indirect index-related tracker funds. The University has explored whether it could source such funds where it could specify the exclusion of particular types of investments. It has been advised that there are currently no index-related funds available to UK investors that enable specific exclusions and to replicate such funds with exclusions manually would be so prohibitively expensive that it would defeat the purpose of investing at all.

What is the University's position regarding future investments?

As agreed by Council, the University will annually review its investment policy and the range of investment opportunities available to it.

What else is the University doing to manage its carbon footprint?

The University of Warwick is one of the World's leading universities committed to addressing global challenges through its world-class multi-disciplinary research. The theme of 'Energy' is one of our “Global Research Priorities” (GRP). The ambitious international targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions require changes will only be achieved through technological advances which in turn can only happen through sustained and substantial investment in research and innovation programmes such as Warwick’s Energy GRP.

We also pride ourselves at Warwick on our governance and corporate social responsibility record on such issues and we have a range environmental initiatives, policies and procedures in place to promote best practice in the area of environmental sustainability. For more information, see our environmental sustainability website.

Those policies include a commitment to ensure that we make investment decisions responsibly and with integrity.Our Policy for Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) has been developed to allow the University to pursue an ethical approach, whilst minimising any negative impact on its investment returns. Investment decisions informed by socially responsible and ethical considerations will also be mindful of the Charity Commission position that trustees have a duty to maximise returns on investment for charitable benefit.

We have also introduced a number of successful sustainable procurement initiatives, with the incentive to monitor the impact we have on the environment through what we buy and have developed strategies to enable us to continuously improve in this area:

• Monitoring the impact we have on the environment through what we buy and developing strategies to continuously improve in this area.
• Working with our suppliers to help them reduce their impact on the environment. This is built in to how we choose who we work with, and the way that we work with them once they're chosen.
• Improving the principles that we base our designs on by adding in requirements that reduce our impact on the environment both while we’re putting the plans in to place, and when we're using whatever we've created.
• We have achieved level 2 (of 5) of the Sustainable Procurement Flexible Framework, a year ahead of target. This is evidence of our commitment to ensuring goods and services are procured in the most sustainable way possible.