A lesson in practical divestment

This case study describes the process used by the Oregon Environmental Council (OEC) to divest its $700,000 endowment fund from fossil fuels and other industries conflicting with its mission, utilizing a hybrid strategy of negative screening and shareholder activism.

• The Oregon Environmental Council (OEC) sought to remove fossil fuel investments from its $700,000 endowment fund to avoid hypocrisy while advocating for climate action in its home state.
• OEC implemented a divestment strategy using 'negative screening' to exclude incompatible industries and a 'best-in-class' approach to score remaining companies on priorities such as climate action, transparency, and human rights.
• To analyze the contents of large mutual funds, OEC used a tool called 'ENSOGO Analytics', which allows investors to identify specific holdings such as nuclear, guns, or drugs that they may object to.
• OEC adopted a hybrid model rather than full divestment, retaining 20% of its endowment in a shareholder activist fund managed by Trillium Investments to maintain leverage and influence within fossil fuel companies.

APA

Hopkins, C. (2015). A lesson in practical divestment. Green Economy Coalition. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and-resources/a-lesson-in-practical-divestment-against-carbon-for-what

Chicago

Hopkins, Chris. A lesson in practical divestment. Green Economy Coalition, 2015. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and-resources/a-lesson-in-practical-divestment-against-carbon-for-what.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hopkins |first1=Chris |title=A lesson in practical divestment |publisher=Green Economy Coalition |date=16 January 2015 |url=https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and-resources/a-lesson-in-practical-divestment-against-carbon-for-what |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hopkins2015lesson, author = {Hopkins, Chris}, title = {{A lesson in practical divestment}}, institution = {Green Economy Coalition}, year = {2015}, month = jan, url = {https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and-resources/a-lesson-in-practical-divestment-against-carbon-for-what}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }