what we do
Our Divestment Team works locally and with a host of partners to convince pension funds, corporate 401(k) plans, local governments, faith communities, and Stanford University to divest from fossil fuels. As the global divestment movement turns to insurance companies and banks, our mission is expanding!
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Many of us are also interested in personal divestment, and in moving our money to banks that do not lend to fossil fuel companies or fossil fuel infrastructure projects.
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To get involved or for more information, contact Divestment@350SiliconValley.org
how we do it
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Team members work to promote divestment and divestment policy.
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We make two arguments: 1) that investing in fossil fuels is immoral as climate changes threatens all of earth’s systems; and 2) that investments in fossil fuels are bad bets for the future, as the energy sector has been outperformed by every other investment sector for at least the past 10 years
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We circulate divestment petitions and speak out at public events.
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We create, discover, and share resources and links to useful information about the worldwide divestment movement.
what's our goal?
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Immediate goal: Convince the general public that just as it’s morally wrong to wreck the planet, it’s wrong to profit from the destruction. Convince institutions and individuals to begin divesting funds from the top 200 oil and gas companies
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Intermediate goal: Compel influencers and decision makers on boards of colleges, religious institutions, and retirement boards—as well as those in the investment community—to divest and announce divestment publicly. Bring enough negative publicity to revoke fossil fuel companies’ social license and promote renewables
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Ultimate goal: keep 80% of the known fossil fuel reserves in the ground, to limit warming to 1.5 degrees C, in order to avoid catastrophic climate change
some of our successes
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2014: The Stanford University Board of Trustees voted to divest the university’s endowment from coal.
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2015: The City of Palo Alto demanded that CalPERS divest its fossil fuel holdings.
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2016: The City of Sunnyvale adopted a Legislative Policy Provision, supporting “legislation to limit or eliminate direct investment of public funds to support the production or drilling of fossil fuels."
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2017: We marched with Stand with Standing Rock to tell banks to stop funding the Dakota Access Pipeline.
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2018: The City of Palo Alto began moving their money out of fossil fuel-laden bonds.
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2018: Passage of SB 964, requiring CalPERS and CalSTRS to account for and report climate-related financial risk in their portfolios.
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2018: Participated in organizing divestfund.org, which awarded thousands of donated dollars held in escrow to Salem State in MA, which agreed to fully divest.
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2019: City of Mountain View adopted a policy to divest their fossil fuel investments.
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2020: Helped Stanford students collect over 1000 signatures demanding that the Trustees rid their endowment of all fossil fuels. They subsequently admitted they have made significant reductions!
divesting fossil fuels from your portfolio
Want to move your money to greener pastures? We periodically host seminars on personal divestment. Learn how to move your money from dirty fossil-fueled institutions and investments to clean sustainable ones. Join our email list to be notified of our next seminar, coming soon!
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To get started with a clean, green portfolio, visit cleanportfolios.com, created by a 350SV member.
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To find out if your mutual funds and ETFs are clean or dirty, visit fossilfreefunds.org.
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To see all the materials from our previous personal divestment seminars, look here.
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For more information, contact divestment@350siliconvalley.org