According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the increase in temperature must be limited to two degrees Celsius to avoid catastrophic and irreversible damage ?by 2100.
GPSO passed the Resolution Regarding Fossil Fuel Divestment and Carbon Neutrality last December, urging the IU Foundation to divest from the top 200 fossil fuel companies within the next five years.
GPSO President Brady Harman and former GPSO Sustainability Officer Jeffrey Meek met with IU Foundation Vice President and Chief Investment Officer Gary Stratten last March. Harman and Meek were unsuccessful in convincing the IU Foundation to divest.
Harman and GPSO sustainability officer Andrew Bredeson got a second chance to make their case during a meeting with Stratten, IU Foundation President Dan Smith, IU Foundation Investment Committee Chair Gary Anderson and the IU Foundation investment committee last December, receiving their official response ?Jan. 26.
Harman and Bredeson, however, were equally ?unsuccessful.
Harman said the IU Foundation responded that its members base their investment decisions on many considerations and do not use them to make symbolic statements.
Bredeson said he and Harman attempted to show the IU Foundation that GPSO had considered the issue from all angles.
“We attempted to distill months of work and conversations and the entire Internet’s work of articles and information into a succinct case for why they should consider looking into fossil fuel divestment,” he said.
Bredeson said he had been working with a group of undergraduate students from the Kelley School of Business to analyze the financial benefits and risks associated with divesting from fossil fuel companies.
He had also been ?collaborating with a group of graduate students from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs to analyze the current and potential government regulations against fossil fuel companies.
“We were trying to show we had done our research,” Harman said. “That way they knew that we had really thought about this through and through.”
Harman said that he and Bredeson also attempted to show the IU Foundation that GPSO is not the only organization to have shown support of the initiative, nor is IU the only university to have pursued divestment or partial divestment.
The All University Student Association, the Bloomington Faculty Council, the Environmental Management and Sustainable Development Association, the Indiana University Southeast Student Government, the Indiana University Student Association, SPEA’s Graduate Student Association and the Sustainability Council have also shown their support of the initiative, ?Bredeson said.
Furthermore, approximately 400 universities have campaigned to divest or partially divest from the top 200 fossil fuel companies, Bredeson said. Of the 400, about 14 universities have successfully divested or partially divested from the top 200 fossil fuel ?companies.
“We tried to emphasize — we did emphasize — that the IU Foundation is not alone in considering this ?issue,” Bredeson said.
Harman said that he and Bredeson did not expect the IU Foundation to divest right away but did hope the IU Foundation would work with GPSO to continue to explore divestment.
“We came thinking we were going to start this collaborative, ongoing relationship with the investment committee to conduct further analysis,” he said.
However, he and Bredeson left with no commitment from the IU Foundation to collaborate to ?explore divestment.
GPSO’s next step is to share the response with the other organizations that have shown support of the initiative.
Though GPSO will continue to support the cause, Bredeson said he expects recently-formed group ?Reinvest IU to begin to lead the initiative.
“GPSO, while it will step back a little bit from this, it will continue to be supportive, as I’m sure the other student governments are,” Harman said.
Bredeson said though the IU Foundation does not use their investment decisions to make symbolic statements, GPSO does not consider the initiative ?symbolic.
“This is not a political issue. We think it primarily a moral imperative and an ethical imperative to use your substantial power to do something meaningful,” he said.
