Learn about our guiding principles and values which shape how we decide what to invest in, as well as what we do when a company no longer aligns with our values. Examples of how our outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) has dealt with this can also be found in this section.
Our values
We believe that including environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors in investment decisions can improve financial performance.
When making investment decisions, we expect our OCIO to consider:
- Promoting human rights, including gender, race, and sexuality equality.
- Encouraging good business ethics and employment practices.
- Protecting the global environment, climate, and biodiversity.
- Supporting international cooperation and ending conflicts, including avoiding companies that produce weapons.
Exclusions
We do not invest in companies that profit from activities in the following areas:
Fact check
Some of our exclusions include a limit to make sure that no investment will occur where revenues derived from these excluded activities exceed a certain percentage of a company’s global revenues.
We review these limits annually, as part of our Responsible Investment Policy annual review, to see if we can reduce them, whilst ensuring that we can carry out our fiduciary duty.
Tobacco
Due to the harm caused by tobacco, we do not invest in companies involved in producing and distributing tobacco products where revenues exceed 10% of that company’s global revenues, and any companies involved in the manufacture of cigarettes and other tobacco products.
Armaments
We do not invest in companies involved in the production of landmines, cluster munitions, civilian firearms (including retail) and whole weapon systems, or companies where revenues relating to activities connected to weapons systems exceed 10% of their overall revenue.
Human rights and labour standards
We do not invest in companies whose policies, practices and record on human rights and labour standards fall below the recognised standard as identified by MSCI environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings or equivalent.
Read our Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement
Oil and Mining
We do not invest in any fossil fuel companies directly. We mandate our OCIO to purposefully invest our indirect investments in pooled funds aligned with our Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) and sustainability requirements.
In our investment assessment in December 2024, less than 0.5% of indirect investments had risk of exposure to investment in fossil fuels companies, for example, investment in a supermarket chain that has forecourt petrol sales. This is a reduction from 10% in 2018.
For context, the current indirect investment in fossil fuel-related companies is less than £0.7m, out of a total £126m Long-Term Portfolio.
Divestment versus engagement
Divestment means selling the investments in a particular company. Engagement is the process of communicating with the company, with the aim of influencing its practices – for example, on environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters.
Engagement can lead to better outcomes than divestment, because it means that we have a say in how companies are run. If we divest, we have no say and therefore no power to drive forward positive change.
We recognise the important role we hold as an asset owner. As outlined in our Responsible Investment Policy, we promote good ESG practices by working with our OCIO to make sure that the investment managers of the pooled funds engage with company boards and encourage positive changes.
This means that we may continue to invest in companies that do not meet the personal ethical views of some individuals. We are bound by our fiduciary duty to invest in the University’s best financial interests, to support our ongoing commitment to education and research now and in the future.
Engagement case study: Pictet Clean Energy
Snapshot: Our indirect investment allocation with Pictet was 1.7% as of 30 September 2024.
Pictet Clean Energy has a strategy that focuses on investing in companies that are part of the clean energy transition. They believe it’s important to invest in all parts of this transition to understand what drives long-term growth and find investment opportunities. These opportunities aren’t just in power production but also in areas like transport, manufacturing, buildings, IT, and energy infrastructure like networks and grids.
Weyerhaeuser is an American company that works with timberlands, wood products, and real estate/energy/renewable resources. The Pictet investment team met with the company’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to learn more, and started a long-term project on biodiversity. In a subsequent meeting with the company’s Sustainability Director, Pictet talked about how using timber instead of more carbon-intensive materials like concrete or steel can help reduce carbon; and the biodiversity benefits of managing forests sustainably.
Now, Weyerhaeuser are focused on promoting biodiversity and protecting areas with important wildlife, with a clear plan to 2030.