Open letter to DFA: I divested from forest destruction and so should you

Janet Thew, a client of Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA), writes to CEO David Booth to announce her divestment of $100,000 and her call for the firm to stop investing in companies responsible for forest destruction. The letter highlights DFA's significant holdings in palm oil, timber, and pulp and paper producers, arguing that these investments contribute to global warming and biodiversity loss. The author urges DFA to move beyond a passive investment strategy to ensure its portfolios are deforestation-free and to use shareholder power to improve corporate human rights and environmental performance.

• Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) is identified as having the highest number of palm oil company holdings of any single financial institution in the United States, with over $775 million invested across more than 80 companies linked to palm oil and deforestation.
• The document asserts that tropical forest destruction, driven largely by the palm oil, pulp and paper, and logging industries, is a primary driver of global warming and causes significant loss of biodiversity, specifically affecting orangutans, Sumatran tigers, and African great apes.
• The author argues that DFA's passive investment strategy maximizes environmental and social destruction and calls for the firm to apply environmental and social screens to all portfolios and use shareholder leverage to improve company performance regarding human rights and forests.

APA

Thew, J. (2014). Open letter to DFA: I divested from forest destruction and so should you. Friends of the Earth. https://foe.org/blog/2014-09-open-letter-to-dimensional-fund-advisers/

Chicago

Thew, Janet. Open letter to DFA: I divested from forest destruction and so should you. Friends of the Earth, 2014. https://foe.org/blog/2014-09-open-letter-to-dimensional-fund-advisers/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Thew |first1=Janet |title=Open letter to DFA: I divested from forest destruction and so should you |publisher=Friends of the Earth |date=4 September 2014 |url=https://foe.org/blog/2014-09-open-letter-to-dimensional-fund-advisers/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{thew2014open, author = {Thew, Janet}, title = {{Open letter to DFA: I divested from forest destruction and so should you}}, publisher = {Friends of the Earth}, year = {2014}, month = sep, url = {https://foe.org/blog/2014-09-open-letter-to-dimensional-fund-advisers/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }