The Harvard Management Company adjusted its natural resource portfolio this week by purchasing a minority stake in produce company Westfalia Fruit International and selling its investments in two Australian farms.
The leaders ousted for fostering a toxic workplace at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation walked away with tens of thousands of dollars in severance pay, tax filings show, revealing the cost of a scandal that rocked the nation’s largest charitable organization of its kind.
The assumption that divestment can hurt the total return of an endowment is based on speculation, according to CJ Ryan, co-author of a recent research paper that found no discernible evidence that divestment of fossil fuels can negatively impact the total return of an endowment’s portfolio.
BlackRock, the world’s largest investor, has joined an influential pressure group calling for the biggest polluters to reduce their emissions, after criticisms that it was undermining action addressing the climate crisis.