Imperial College London’s mission is to achieve enduring excellence in research and education in science, engineering, medicine and business for the benefit of society. This mission is pursued by means of research, education and innovation, and the College engages many partners in delivering its mission effectively.

The College’s status and position enables it to exert influence by means of engagement with wider society through key stakeholders. This pro-active approach is at the core of the College’s mission.

The Endowment and other investments are a key part of the College. They support the mission through the income they generate and act consistently with, and as part of, the College’s vision, mission and values.  The College and the Endowment recognise that the way it invests its money reflects the values of the College.

The Endowment was officially established in August 2005 to generate income to support the College’s academic mission by stewarding investment assets. The Endowment’s investment in equities (circa 60% of asset value) is managed by external asset managers, those in property and private equity are managed directly by the College.

It has grown from £129m since inception to £480m (as of 31st December 2019), but still remains significantly smaller than those of peer institutions in the Global Top 10.

The Endowment is overseen by the Endowment Board with delegated authority from the College’s Council to which it reports annually. The Board has majority representation from non-executive members who have market experience and expertise consistent with the Endowment’s investments.

The College’s policy is to ensure that any investment decisions take into account the same social, environmental and governance concerns as the College, including pursuing an active approach to engagement with its investments in all asset classes.

The College’s position as a world-leading institution of higher learning will be leveraged to affect positive change.

All investments within the Endowment will align with major international accords and relevant regulation and legislation. Therefore, the College and its fund managers will be signatories to the UN Principles of Responsible Investment.

Active ownership and engagement will be at the heart of the Endowment Board’s approach. Where the Endowment does not have the scale to be effective in its engagement based on the size of its investments alone, it will look to collaborate or combine resources with like-minded investors.

An Endowment Board report on the effectiveness of this approach will be given regularly to Council and President’s Board. This will include the progress the College and other investors are making in changing the behaviour, where change is needed, of companies in which it has invested. This should include a statement, including supporting evidence, on whether there is a clear prospect of future influence.

Should a corporation be deemed unresponsive to engagement by the Endowment and its asset managers, and that corporation is a strategic partner for the College, or a funder of research, or employer of graduates, then the College will use these relationships to influence and engage the corporation.

If the College assesses that a company’s current activities and future plans are not aligned with this policy and it has exhausted all possibilities for influence, it will instruct the Endowment Board to divest.

Council has mandated the Endowment Board to oversee its investment portfolio according to this policy.

Council has mandated President’s Board to provide it with advice on this policy and its delivery.

The College will ensure that:

1. The policy and practices relating to its investment portfolio are reviewed regularly
2. There is a forum for considering representations to change the Policy and practices relating to it on ESG grounds
3. Its investment managers are engaging in responsible investment, and report regularly to monitor the investment portfolio in the context of this Policy.

Review Programme

The SRI Policy Working Group met to review initial responses from the College community. Having reviewed these comments, the SRI Working Group have provided clarification on the language of the policy around fossil fuels. Details on this update can be found below.

An SRI Engagement Group has been established to develop and implement methods to monitor and assess progress the College is making in influencing fossil fuel companies through its research and collaborations, education programmes and influence as a world-leading university. The SRI Engagement Group will convene internal and external representation in order to draw on the expertise of the College community and ensure that the College’s assessment plan is benchmarked against best practices across the sector. Further details of the SRI Engagement Group can be found below.

Feedback on the SRI Policy can be sent to sri.policy@imperial.ac.uk

The College, including the Endowment will not invest (directly or indirectly) in companies that manufacture tobacco.

The College, including the Endowment will not invest (directly or indirectly) in companies which manufacture arms that are illegal under Arms Control Treaties to which the UK is a signatory.

The College will continue to invest in fossil fuels companies that demonstrate they are actively moving towards meeting Paris Agreement targets.

The College will influence the behaviour of these companies by the following means:

• Our educational programmes
• Our research and collaborations
• Our influence as active shareholders
• Our influence as a world-leading university

The Endowment Board will report on the progress the College and other investors are making in changing company behaviour, by measuring progress against the Paris Agreement targets.

The College believes that, on the current evidence, thermal coal and tar sand extraction do not play a part in achieving the Paris Agreement targets and will therefore instruct the Endowment Board to divest from direct and indirect investments in companies engaged in these activities that are unable to make progress towards Paris Agreement targets.*

* Footnote: clarification on the language regarding divestment from fossil fuel companies was made in July 2020 following feedback from the College community. This reflects existing language used in the full SRI Policy relating to fossil fuels below.

Please see further information: Socially Responsible Investment Policy - Investing in Fossil Fuels.

Our College Strategy 2020-2025 describes the Endowment as an enabler to strengthen and diversify our revenues so we can deliver our mission. We have spoken to individuals, staff groups and student representatives about how the Endowment funds are invested to achieve that goal while remaining true to the College mission ‘to achieve enduring excellence in research and education in science, engineering, medicine and business for the benefit of society’.

On Friday 22 November 2019, Council approved a recommendation from the Imperial College Student Union and the President’s Board to set up a SRI Policy Working Group. It was tasked with preparing a College SRI Policy for approval at the 14 February 2020 meeting of Council.

The SRI Policy Working Group have drawn on the expertise and views of the College community, key stakeholders, Endowment Board members and Council, as well as external experts in responsible investment. They have taken written evidence, invited specific people to give oral evidence and had informal discussions as appropriate.

The SRI Policy prepared by the SRI Working Group was discussed and approved at Council on Friday 14 February 2020. Council have now amended the Terms of Reference for the Endowment Board to instruct them to follow the College SRI Policy. The Endowment Board will report back to Council annually on its implementation of the SRI Policy.

Friday 22 November 2019
Council approves the establishment of a SRI Policy Working Group

Thursday 28 November 2019
SRI Policy Working Group announced‌

Tuesday 3 December 2019 
First meeting of the SRI Policy Working Group

SRI Policy Working Group Meeting Summary - 3 December 2019‌

Tuesday 10 December 2019 
Discussion of Socially Responsible Investment at President’s Board

Monday 6 January 2020 
Meeting with:

• Annabel Rudebeck, Head of Non-US Credit at Western Asset Management and Member of the Endowment Board

Tuesday 7 January  2020
Second meeting of the SRI Policy Working Group

Monday 13 January 2020
Discussion of Socially Responsible Investment Policy at President’s Board

Monday 13 January 2020
Meeting with:

• Tom Pike, Vice-President of Imperial UCU
• Ann Muggeridge, Chair in Petroleum Engineering

Wednesday 15 January 2020
Meeting with:

• Bruce Duguid, Head of Stewardship at Hermes EOS
• Marisol Hernandez, Head of Asset Owners at UN Principles of Responsible Investment

Thursday 16 January  2020
Meeting with:

• Patrick Bolton, Professor of Finance and Economics
• Marcin Kacperczyk, Professor of Finance
• Alex Lipp, Divest Imperial

Friday 17 January  2020
Meeting with:

• Catherine Howarth, CEO of ShareAction
• Malia Schaerer, Investment Advisor, Marc Posso, Investment Advisor, and Norbert Rucker, Head of Economics and Next Generation Research, at Julius Baer
• Richard Maitland, Partner and Head of Charities, David Pitt-Watson, Advisor, and Ben McEwan, Climate Active Analyst, at Sarasin & Partners

Wednesday 22 January 2020
Third meeting of the SRI Policy Working Group

Friday 31 January 2020
Deadline for written submissions to be received

Tuesday 4 February 2020
Meeting with:

• Mary Ryan, Vice-Dean (Research), Faculty of Engineering

Wednesday 5 February 2020
Meeting with:

• Wendy Rees, Head of UK Stakeholder Relations and Reputation Management, and Andreas Borck, Investor Relations, at Shell

Thursday 6 February 2020
Meeting with:

• Alyssa Gilbert, Head of Policy and Translation, and Neil Jennings, Partnership Development Manager, at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change

Friday 14 February 2020
Council approved the Socially Responsible Investment Policy

Monday 2 March 2020
The Socially Responsible Investment Policy was published

The SRI Policy Working Group have drawn on the expertise and views of the College community, key stakeholders, Endowment Board members and Council, as well as external experts in responsible investment.

Evidence given in person

Submissions via email

An SRI Engagement Group has been established to develop and implement methods to monitor and assess progress the College is making in influencing fossil fuel companies through its research and collaborations, education programmes and influence as a world-leading university. The SRI Engagement Group will convene internal and external representation to draw on the expertise of the College community and ensure that the College’s assessment plan is benchmarked against best practice across the sector.

The Engagement Group will make its recommendations to the SRI Working Group and to President’s Board.

Professor Geoffrey Maitland – Professor of Energy Engineering (Chair)

Geoff Maitland is Professor of Energy Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering. His career has spanned academia and industry, spending 20 years in oil and gas with oilfield services company Schlumberger as a research director, and over 20 years at Imperial, first as a young lecturer from 1974 to 1985 and then from 2005 in his current post. His research is concerned with how, as we transition to net-zero by reducing fossil fuel use for energy, industrial processes and hydrogen, we eliminate their carbon emissions until they are phased out by using Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). Since 2005 he has been Director of several research programmes on decarbonisation of fossil fuels sponsored by Shell:

• Clean Fossil Fuels Grand Challenge 2006-11
• Qatar Carbonates and Carbon Storage Research Centre (QCCSRC) 2008-18 – jointly with Qatar Petroleum
• Digital Rocks Programme 2016-20

Abhijay Sood – Imperial College Union President

Abhijay Sood is the elected President of Imperial College Union and is the Student Representative on Council. Abhijay is also a member of the Socially Responsible Investment Policy Group which was responsible for developing the College’s SRI Policy (launched in March 2020).  

Professor Anna Korre – Co-Director, Energy Futures Lab

Anna Korre is co-Director of Energy Futures Lab and Professor of Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London. Anna has previously received funding from the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), BP, Eni, the BG Group, Iberdrola and Vattenfall to carry out life cycle assessment research. The most substantial of these projects has been her work for the OCGI which covered two main elements:

• Life cycle techno-economic assessment of greenhouse gas mitigation options in the natural gas value chain, and
• Global natural gas supply chains analysis

Anna has also worked on a large number of EU, UKRI and BEIS funded projects on CO₂ Capture, Utilisation and Storage since the early 2000s.

Alyssa Gilbert – Director of Policy and Translation, Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment

Alyssa Gilbert is the Director of Policy and Translation at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial where she connects relevant research across the university with policy-makers and businesses to make an impact. She has a background in policy analysis as an environmental consultant.

Professor Tim Green – Co-Director, Energy Futures Lab

Tim Green is Co-director of Energy Futures Lab and Professor of Electrical Power Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He has been a member of staff at Imperial since 1996. His research is in how electricity grids are to be transformed to operate with very high fractions of variable renewable generation including issues of ensuring stability and seeking new forms of flexibility to facilitate grid optimisation. He also leads collaboration across seven departments on planning low-carbon energy systems. Between 2005 and 2010 he was part of a BP-funded research project on Urban Energy Systems and between 2005 and 2006 led a BP-funded research project exploring replacing AC building supplies with low-voltage DC.

Professor Frank Kelly - Humphrey Battcock Chair of Environment and Health

Frank Kelly holds the Humphrey Battcock Chair in Community Health and Policy at Imperial, where he is Director of the Environmental Research Group, Director of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit on Environment and Health and Deputy Director of the MRC-PHE Centre for Environment & Health. Frank leads a substantial research activity which spans all aspects of air pollution research from toxicology to science policy. He has led studies of the urban airshed within London including the impact of the introduction of London’s Congestion Charging Zone and Low Emission Zone.  He is past Chairman of the British Association for Lung Research and he has provided policy support to the WHO on air pollution issues. He has chaired COMEAP, the UK’s Department of Health & Social Care Expert Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants for the last 9 years and he is a member of the US Health Effects Institute Review Committee.

Professor Nick Jennings – Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise)

Nick Jennings is the Vice-Provost for Research and Enterprise and Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Imperial.

Professor Patrick Bolton – Professor of Finance and Economics, Business School

Patrick Bolton is Professor at Imperial and the Barbara and David Zalaznick Professor of Business at Columbia University. He is a Co-Director of the Center for Contracts and Economic Organization at the Columbia Law School, a past President of the American Finance Association, a Fellow of the Econometric Society (elected 1993), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 2009), and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy (elected 2013). His areas of interest are in Contract Theory, Corporate Finance, Corporate Governance, Banking, Sovereign Debt, Political Economy, Law and Economics, and Sustainable Investing. He has written a leading graduate textbook on Contract Theory with Mathias Dewatripont, MIT Press (2005) and The Green Swan: Central Banking and Financial Stability in the Age of Climate Change, with Morgan Despres, Luiz Pereira Da Silva, Frederic Samama, and Romain Svartzman. Among the books he co-edited are Sovereign Wealth Funds and Long-Term Investing, with Frederic Samama and Joseph E. Stiglitz, Columbia University Press (2011); and Coping with the Climate Crisis: Mitigation Policies and Global Coordination, with Rabah Aretzki, Karim El Aynaoui and Maurice Obstfeld, Columbia University Press, 2018.

Professor Ralf Toumi – Co-Director, Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment

Ralf Toumi is Co-Director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, supported by the Grantham Foundation. Ralf has worked extensively with BP PLC on climate change adaptation from 2006-2016.

Bridget McNulty - Management Trainee, Office of the President/Provost (Secretary)

Bridget McNulty joined Imperial as a Management Trainee in 2018. Bridget has managed projects in Academic Partnerships, the International Relations Office, the Education Office and the Central Secretariat. Bridget is currently based in the Offices of the President and the Provost where she has managed the development of Imperial’s Sustainability Strategy with Paul Lickiss (Academic Leader in Sustainability).

1. To monitor and assess progress the College is making in influencing fossil fuel companies through its research and collaborations, education programmes and influence as a world-leading university.
2. To consult with relevant internal stakeholders to review the College’s current approach to engaging with fossil fuel companies.
3. To consider guidance from external advisors and best practice across the sector to inform how the College effectively delivers impact with its engagement.
4. To consult with external advisors to assess fossil fuel companies’ progress towards meeting the Paris Agreement Targets.
5. To present the proposed action plan for assessing engagement to the SRI Working Group.

The Engagement Group members will be appointed by September 2020. An initial draft assessment plan will be presented to the SRI Working Group. Recommendations for assessing engagement will be presented to President’s Board by April 2021.