Dive Brief:
- Stanford University announced Tuesday that it will no longer directly invest any of its $18.7-billion endowment in coal companies.
- The board of trustees will instead invest in alternative energy sources, per recommendations made by a panel of students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Additionally, the school had been petitioned to make such a move by the student organization Fossil Free Stanford.
- Research is also underway at the university to develop sustainable fuels.
Dive Insight:
Call it a sign of the times. Stanford is hardly the first higher ed institution to agree to divest from coal companies, but the size of its endowment makes the decision especially noteworthy. As The Huffington Post reports, student efforts have also led San Francisco State University and Massachusetts' Hampshire College to end their coal investments, though movements at Brown University and Middlebury College didn't see the same success.
Some 100 coal extraction companies will lose investments as a result of the decision, and with climate change continuing to become a larger concern for more people, such moves are sure to become more commonplace.