Sierra Club Foundation Invests $4 Million in Climate Solutions

The Sierra Club Foundation announced that it is investing 20 percent of its endowment, or $4 million, in the clean energy economy. The announcement was made as part of yesterday's White House Clean Energy Investment Summit.

“Today, we’re putting our money where our mouth is by investing in the rapidly growing future of clean energy,” said Peter Martin, The Sierra Club Foundation executive director. “Coal stocks are plummeting and the clean energy economy is expanding rapidly. Given the inherent risk of long term investments in all fossil fuels in a world where the G7 nations just committed to complete decarbonization over the course of the century, we are confident that this new commitment will meet our investment return expectations over the long term. At the same time, our best hope of tackling the climate crisis will be achieved only by transitioning the global economy to a clean energy future that protects workers, our communities and our air and water—and these investments support that core mission directly.”

The White House Clean Energy Summit is designed as a forum for foundations, family offices and institutional investors to share ideas and insights on scaling private sector investments in solutions to climate change, including innovative technologies to reduce carbon pollution.

For many years, The Sierra Club Foundation has been funding work to shut down dirty power plants, stop the construction of new plants and reduce dependence on fossil fuels that pollute our air, water and climate through its charitable grantmaking. At the same time, the foundation has funded aggressive advocacy to encourage development of clean energy solutions.

In 2010, the Foundation’s efforts were expanded to include mission-aligned investing and shareholder engagement on issues related to its mission, which led to the decision to become one of the initial signers to the Divest-Invest initiative in 2013.

“While institutional and foundation divestment from fossil fuels is an important step, an even more important need is investment in clean energy, efficiency and innovative technologies that will contribute to climate solutions,” said Martin. “The Sierra Club Foundation has already invested $6 million in clean energy and green bonds. Now, this additional $4 million commitment will go toward more targeted investments that will help accelerate the growth of the clean energy economy.”

For more information, visit www.sierraclubfoundation.org.