Rutgers To Divest University Endowment From Fossil Fuels

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — On Tuesday, the Rutgers Board of Governors voted to begin the 10-year process of divesting all university money from fossil fuel industries.

At the moment, Rutgers uses natural gas as its primary fuel to power its campus, keep the lights on in classrooms and heat its buildings and dorms.

However, a "Carbon Neutrality and Climate Resilience" task force is working "to assess Rutgers' greenhouse gas emissions from its energy use and buildings," the school said.

Currently, approximately five percent of Rutgers' $1.6 billion endowment is invested in fossil fuel industries or companies. Sixty percent of these investments are in private funds, and the remainder are in public equity or fixed income accounts, disclosed the school.

Rutgers has the goal of divesting from passive index fossil fuel funds within one year and to exit all currently held private fossil fuel investments within 10 years. Rutgers will also cease all new investments in fossil fuels.

In turn, Rutgers said it will take the money and "reinvest it in more environmentally friendly versions of those indices (including public equity funds)."

The NJ Sierra Club applauded the move and said Gov. Murphy should similarly divest all public money from the fossil fuel industry.

"This decision will commit Rutgers University to cutting financial connections to any company or investment fund whose primary business is in oil, coal, or natural gas, from exploration and extraction to pipelines and transportation," said Jeff Tittel of the Sierra Club. “If the governor is really concerned about climate change and sea-level rise, then he has to divest. Otherwise, everything he says on climate change is just hot air.”

It was a Rutgers student group, the Endowment Justice Collective, who first pushed the university to divest.

“Students like me have expressed our desires to see the university rapidly decrease its carbon footprint and will be proud to see Rutgers taking this step,” said Zunaira Wasim, a junior at Rutgers New Brunswick, one of four students who served on the committee.

“This decision aligns with Rutgers’ mission to advance public health and social justice,” said Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway. “While the university has taken steps recently to limit investments in this area, approving a policy of divestment from fossil fuels is a significant expression of the values of our institution.”

Fossil fuel investments are investments in any company or fund whose primary business is the exploration or extraction of fossil fuels, including coal, oil and natural gas.

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