Climate Action Pursuit 2021

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A workshop to discuss goal-setting, identify shared challenges and shared aspirations, and meet colleagues with similar interests. Participants can expect to engage with their peers from across higher ed and leave the workshop with tools, connections, resources, and goals to work towards to overcome tricky issues. Joining this workshop gives you the opportunity – but not an obligation – to form a team with colleagues to receive additional support through the Climate Action Pursuit.

The sole purpose of this training will be to improve literacy of older generations to build a more inclusive, intergenerational climate movement. We will dive deep into the values that youth carry and their vision for the future, as well as how adult allies at universities and institutions can listen to youth activists, create institutional infrastructure to support turning asks into action with students, and carving an equitable path forward for all.

Whether your climate and justice initiative involves only people in your institution or a larger group of community stakeholders, a clear and powerful shared intent is key to success. In this session, Russ Gaskin and Sharon Simms explored how to form a powerful shared intent to keep diverse stakeholders at the table despite their differences, generate energy and momentum to fuel the work, and establish the focus for everyone to stay on track amidst competing priorities and political forces.

There will not be a recording of this session.

In this workshop, we'll discuss how to integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion practices throughout your organization - from organizational policies/procedures/culture straight through to business practices. Leaders from Global Endowment Management will talk about the evolution of DE&I at their firm, and we'll brainstorm as a group how to advance DE&I in our work.


Evidence – the business case for investing with a racial equity or diversity lens:
 
McKinsey: 10 year cost of racial wealth gap in America between $1 Trillion and $1.5 Trillion (Racial Equity)
 
 
Institutional Investor: VCs missing a trillion dollar opportunity (Diversity, Social and Racial Equity)
 
 
VCs lose trillions by bypassing diverse leaders (Diversity, Social and Racial Equity)
 
 
McKinsey Study: Delivering Through Diversity (Diversity)
 
 
FT: Investment Teams with more women or ethnic minorities outperform (Diversity, Social Equity)
 
 
Harvard Business School: The Other Diversity Dividend (Diversity)
 
 
Living Cities: Radical Collaboration for Black Wealth Creation (Racial Equity)
 
 
Stanford University: Race influences professional investors' financial judgments (Diversity, Racial Equity) – this one is particularly helpful in illustrating how standard investment practices may not adequately be meeting fiduciary duty hurdles
 
 
Knight Foundation: Diversifying Investments (Diversity, Racial and Social Equity)

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This session is an opportunity for board members, executives, faculty, staff and students to learn how climate justice is being incorporated into teaching, research and strategic planning at three North American universities. This will be an introductory session for participants working to transform a commitment to climate justice into action and will set the stage for a series where participant will develop a community of learning and be supported in implementing initiatives at their institution.

Some key takeaways from this session:

• Great opportunities for collaborations between UC & CSU systems in climate justice
• General acknowledgement that there is a need for a community of practice around how to integrate climate justice into climate action work at colleges and universities (i.e., there is no playbook for how to do this work).
• Examples highlighted by the speakers from WWU, UC Merced, and UBC serve as inspirational starting points for building such a community of practice
  
  
  

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Learn about the impact of social media in forwarding your institution’s mission and goals, and learn concrete strategies for how to identify your target community and how to reach them. You'll learn best practices on how to use social media platforms in this workshop.

Special Note
All attendees are welcome to bring 3 sheets of blank paper for this workshop.

This featured workshop on Browning the Green Space - Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) in Practice will provide participants an overview of the primary role that justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion play in advancing climate action within higher education. In this session, we will explore systems-based approaches to promoting JEDI objectives in pursuing energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable resource management, and more by examining how these approaches intersect with several key pillars - careers & companies, capital & contracts, and communities.

This workshop will focus on the ways that college/universities can develop more just and equitable climate action plans drawing on the experiences of several higher education institutions and other cross-sector partners.

In this workshop, participants will learn about how regulators in Europe and the U.S. are reshaping the investment and business landscape, and make plans to take action to shape and respond to the evolving policy context. Some questions we’ll answer together during the workshop include:
Who is proposing, evaluating, and enforcing the rules around the environmental, social, and governance priorities in our economy?
Which of those rules are likely to change, and how can you prepare as an investor?
How can you - as a student, higher education staff member, investor, researcher, or other stakeholder in our economy - help shape the rules to promote racial justice, environmental justice, climate action, and responsible corporate governance?
Which organizations, resources, and tools already exist to help us take action?

This will be an active discussion, with participants joining breakout groups to discuss timely opportunities for action.

The higher education, foundation, and nonprofit communities are taking great strides in reducing their impacts on the planet, as well as fostering inclusive environments on campus.
Yet, a “blind spot” exists between an organization’s goals and the retirement investments they provide on behalf of its employees. Many retirement funds invest in companies with poor track records on the environment, diversity, and racial justice. This session is designed to give you a new toolkit needed to correct this and begin moving the more than $1 trillion in 403(b) in assets towards a world that fosters a healthier planet and a more just society for all.

In this workshop, we’ll equip stakeholders to leverage the full power and assets of higher education institutions to achieve climate justice. The workshop will kick off with remarks by Dr. Davarian Baldwin, the Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies at Trinity College, to talk about "The Anti-Racist University: Why Equity and Inclusion Cannot Stop at the Campus Gates," providing a big picture view of current and historical origins of university power & wealth. We will then engage in an active learning and peer-to-peer conversations to cover approaches to developing a more equitable relationship between our communities and our universities for climate justice in several action areas including: endowment investing, procurement, hiring, capital improvements and infrastructure planning, reparations programs, and staff retirement plans.

Santa Clara University and Dickinson College have embraced the power of collective action to augment their campuses' operational climate initiatives. EcoChallenge.org provides tools and resources to unite individuals, campuses and communities in drawing down climate change and using behavioral strategies for positive change. Speakers in this session will share their tools and practices to invite and empower students, faculty, and staff to easily see how the choices they make contribute to collective campus and global sustainability goals, as well as how those collective actions are measured and shared.

This session will introduce forest carbon offsets and consider their role in helping university campuses and endowments meet net zero climate commitments. It brings fresh perspectives on how and why nature-based solutions, specifically forest carbon offsets, are an important part of global climate change mitigation and a helpful tool for achieving net zero targets. TFG is a large timberland investment manager with a focus on natural forests that is actively participating in both regulatory and voluntary markets as a producer of high-quality forestry offsets. Bluesource is a leading North American offset developer, with a deep background in project development as well as credit marketing and sales. Danone has committed to becoming net zero by 2050 and plans to include offsets as a part of its diverse strategy for climate neutrality. Together, our participating panelists will cover a) What are forest carbon credits and how are they developed; b) Why forest carbon credits are a natural climate solution and how they can play a role on the path to neutrality; and, c) How have corporations, universities and endowments utilized forest carbon credits.

Asset Managers will play a key role in ensuring endowments can meet Net Zero Portfolio commitments, to reduce emissions and drive equitable climate solutions in the real economy. This session will include perspectives from leading asset managers and nonprofit industry initiatives on the latest state of play and best practices. Participants will explore the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, Investor Climate Action Plans (ICAPs), and other industry initiatives enabling effective pathways to a net zero economy. Half of the session will be spent in breakout rooms for small-group dialogue and action planning.

With the urgency to decarbonize as soon as possible, more claims of meeting carbon neutrality will increase. The Climate Leadership Network has had 10 signatories meet their carbon neutral goals. However, there is a current robust discussion regarding how claims are made and what should be included when sharing the accomplishment. As campuses continue to navigate goal-setting, metric-tracking, and strategy development to decarbonize, it's important that claims of carbon neutrality are transparent both for individual campuses and as a network of campuses. This session will keep the conversation going and will be split into two 45 minutes segments. It will begin with three presentations from sectors outside of higher education that will share how they have approached communicating and supporting carbon reduction goals. The presentations will be followed by 45 minutes of breakout, facilitated discussion focused on three topic areas:
1. Claiming Neutrality – What are scoping, science-based targets, observed reductions, offsetting, and verified considerations or requirements for a carbon neutral claim in higher education?
2. Market Based Instruments – What experiences have campuses had in setting offset policies, conducting procurements, and defining a “quality” offset and RECs.
3. Shared Emissions Obligations – How are Scope 3 emissions unique to higher education and what are appropriate approaches to track, reduce and offset these activities?

This workshop will walk participants through key steps and strategies used in the development of the City of Oakland's 2030 Equitable Climate Action Plan (ECAP).

In this session, you’ll hear lightning round presentations from peers on what you can do to move personal and institutional assets for climate justice. Thought leaders will share ways in which we can engage companies to direct them towards more sustainable practices and why these actions are essential for university stakeholders to consider in their climate action plan. After hearing about different strategies for mobilizing institutional and individual assets, you’ll have an opportunity to engage in a smaller, peer-to-peer conversation with the speaker on the topic of your choice. Topics of this session include:
Topic 1: Enhancing Shareholder Value and Investment Returns: Applications of the As You Vote Proxy Voting Service | As You Sow and Warren Wilson College,
Topic 2: Your Climate, Your Money & Your Bank: How to Align Your Banking Choices with your Climate Values | BankFWD , Topic 3: How to Advocate for ESG in Your Retirement Plan | PRM