A lesson in practical divestment

The Oregon Environmental Council (OEC) divested its $700,000 endowment fund from fossil fuels using a hybrid strategy of negative screening and shareholder activism. By partnering with Segue Point and UBS Financial Services, OEC employed 'negative screening' and a 'best-in-class' approach, utilizing ENSOGO Analytics to evaluate mutual funds. To avoid losing internal influence over polluting industries, OEC retained 20% of its endowment in a shareholder activist fund managed by Trillium Investments, which uses share ownership as leverage to influence corporate management.

• The Oregon Environmental Council (OEC) sought to divest its $700,000 endowment fund from fossil fuels and other industries that conflicted with its mission to avoid hypocrisy in its financial portfolio.
• OEC implemented a divestment strategy using 'negative screening' to exclude incompatible companies and a 'best-in-class' approach to score remaining companies on priorities such as climate action, transparency, and human rights.
• The organization used a tool called 'ENSOGO Analytics' to analyze the contents of large mutual funds, allowing them to identify and exclude specific sectors like nuclear, guns, or drugs.
• OEC adopted a hybrid model by retaining 20% of its endowment in a shareholder activist fund managed by Trillium Investments, arguing that maintaining a small 'dirty' portion allows for internal influence over fossil fuel companies to drive positive change.

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} }