Tell UBC to stop financing environmental destruction and colonial violence, and reinvest back into our communities.

UBC BOARD OF GOVERNORS, UBC TREASURY, OFFICE OF THE UNIVERSITY COUNSEL, AND UBC INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

While we acknowledge that UBC has made some strong commitments in its investment strategies, such as divestment from fossil fuels, there are still multiple opportunities for UBC to truly “lead as a model institution” in responsible investment.

Our collective message is simple: stop financing environmental destruction and colonial violence, and reinvest back into our communities.

Petition by

To: UBC BOARD OF GOVERNORS, UBC TREASURY, OFFICE OF THE UNIVERSITY COUNSEL, AND UBC INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT
From: [Your Name]

As a member of the UBC student community, I support the Divestment Coalition’s proposals on the Responsible Investment Policy Update.

These are the asks:

Proposal #1:

Companies complicit in the following should not be candidates for investment:
- Mining companies without sanction to operate on Indigenous land and/or complicit in abuses towards land defenders.
- Companies complicit in Israeli Apartheid.
- Companies complicit in the prison industrial complex and mass incarceration.
- Weapon companies and those related to the police and military.
- Companies complicit in land grabs.

Proposal #2:

UBC directs IMANT to create a 10 million dollar test portfolio of companies with a clean human rights record using an investment screen for human rights abuses.
The creation of this human rights screen must be a collaborative and open project between our coalition and the university under the “responsible investment strategy” as aligned with ESG investing parameters.
UBC should release a statement on their policy update acknowledging the human rights abuses ongoing in the operations of the companies it is divesting from, addressing why developing more ambitious responsible investment practices is relevant in the path for justice, and calling on other universities to adopt the same investing approach.
To address concerns about the novelty of human rights-based investment criteria, and to make proper use of the University’s research potential, UBC should set up a task force to research human rights-based divestment processes and avenues.

Proposal #3:

Formally incorporate Climate Justice UBC’s Divestment Plus recommendations and the recommendations under the Towards a People’s Endowment Community Reinvestment Campaign as permanent investment strategies within the Responsible Investment Policy.
Apply climate and social justice principles to the manager selection process and manager agreements.
Disclose investments across all asset classes by the end of the calendar year.
Create a new asset class designation for community impact investments with an initial allocation of at least $10 million by 2024 and a long-term target of 10% of university investment assets.
Involve the UBC community in developing UBC’s investment priorities.

We thank you for considering the proposals, please contact the UBC Social Justice Center or Climate Justice UBC for more information and find more details about these asks in the formal letter sent by the Divestment Coalition.

Divestment Coalition Letter to the Board of Governors:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E4X_FTOB5FzHkx7ZB-reHMpK-apfEusYIm5PlYLTPIY/edit?usp=sharing

Thank you for your time.
The UBC community.