University of California, Merced
PA-8: Committee on Investor Responsibility

The University of California’s Board of Regents (“the Regents”) makes all investment policy decisions regarding the UC endowment. The Regents include discussion of social and environmental concerns in their regular meetings, thereby fully integrating sustainability into investment discussions and decisions. In addition, the public is invited to participate in the Regents’ meetings and to voice questions, concerns and suggestions around social and environmental issues. When social or environmental concerns are raised, the Regents typically refer the matter to the Chief Investment Officer for follow-up action. The Chief Investment Officer reports directly to the Regents, thus adding a measure of oversight and accountability around sustainable investing beyond most separately constituted committees on investor responsibility. The Board of Regents’ policy regarding sustainability in endowment investments states in relevant part: The Office of the Chief Investment Officer shall incorporate environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and governance (ESG) into the investment evaluation process as part of its overall risk assessment in its investments decision making. ESG factors are considered with the same weight as other material risk factors influencing investment decision making. The Office of the Chief Investment Officer uses a proprietary sustainability framework to provide core universal principles that inform the decisions and assist in the process of investment evaluation. The Office of the Chief Investment Officer manages the [endowment] consistent with these sustainability principles. The Framework can be found on the Office of the Chief Investment Officer website in the sustainability section.

Maria Anguiano, Regent & Vice-Chair of the Investments Committee Richard C. Blum, Regent Laphonza Butler, Regent Michael Cohen, Regent Gareth Elliott, Regent Cecilia Estolano, Regent Devon Graves, Student Regent Howard "Peter" Guber, Regent George Kieffer, Regent & Board Chair Sherry L. Lansing, Regent Richard Leib, Regent Hadi Makarechian, Regent Eloy Ortiz Oakley, Regent Lark Park, Regent John A. Pérez, Regent & Board Vice-Chair Richard Sherman, Regent & Chair of the Investments Committee Jonathan "Jay" Sures, Regent Ellen Tauscher, Regent Charlene Zettel, Regent Gavin Newsom, Ex Officio Regent Eleni Kounalakis, Ex Officio Regent Anthony Rendon, Ex Officio Regent Tony Thurmond, Ex Officio Regent Janet Napolitano, Ex Officio Regent Darin Anderson, Ex Officio Alumni Regent Jason Morimoto, Ex Officio Alumni Regent Robert May, Faculty Representative Kum-Kum Bhavnani, Faculty Representative Edward Greg Huang, Student Advisor Sherry Main, Staff Advisor

Integration of Environmental and Social Factors: On numerous occasions over the past three years, the UC Regents have discussed and expressed support for integrating environmental and social factors into endowment investment decisions. With regard to fossil fuel investments, the UC Regents have expressed support for ramping down endowment investments (as a means of “de-risking” the portfolio) and ramping up investment in clean energy and other sustainable technologies, in accordance with the UC Framework for Sustainable Investing. In 2018, the Regents voted to amend their Investment Policy Statement to require that environmental and social factors be given the same weight as other material risk factors. Public Access and Comment: Our CIR’s thrice-annual meetings are open to the public and allow public comment. In the past three years, members of the public including students, faculty, staff and alumni, have provided comment on a wide range of environmental and social issues pertaining to UC investments, including for example: climate change and fossil fuel divestment, human rights in Turkey and the private prison industry. In particular, students from Fossil Free UC have, on numerous occasions, engaged directly with the Chief Investment Officer and the Regents at these meetings. Adding Resources to ESG Integration: In 2018, the Regents approved the Chief Investment Officer’s recommendation to create a new position fully dedicated to integrating environmental, social and governance issues into UC Investment’s processes and decisions.

The full investment policy can be found here: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/policies/6102.pdf Minutes from the meetings are publicly available and can be found here: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/minutes-index/index.html