Tuesday 24-05-2016 - 14:27

We need to go further than pulling our money out of fossil fuels. It’s time to get our universities to fund our renewable future, and our new briefing will give you loads of ideas on how to do it.

More and more of our universities are divesting from fossil fuels, thanks to the incredible campaign work of students and officers across the UK.

The next question is: What do we do with our money instead?

Our new briefing on positive investments, written in collaboration with Community Reinvest, gives you loads of good ideas about how you can use money you’ve divested to fund the renewable future we want to see.

We have a huge list of suggestions of projects and funds you can move your money into, from on-campus renewables projects, to ethical bonds and equity investments. Not only can these investments transform our energy system, they can also give great returns.

Here’s just three examples:

• Lancaster’s wind turbine
  Lancaster University installed a wind turbine in 2012. It produces 15% of their electricity, and will pay for itself after just six years. In its 25 year lifetime, it’ll produce an incredible £15 million of renewable power
• Energy-efficiency in Manchester
  The University of Manchester is enjoying a return of nearly 15% per year after investing in energy efficiency across the lighting of their art galleries. They’re now saving about £870,000 a year.
• Triodos Renewables Europe Fund
  If you don’t want to invest directly in a project either on or off campus, there’s loads and loads of bonds and equity funds you could put your money into instead. One example is this initiative of Triodos Bank, investing in small to medium sized clean energy producers, through a well-diversified portfolio in proven technologies.

With some of the world’s biggest coal companies going bust this year, and renewables continuing to get stronger and stronger, there’s never been a more sensible time to shift investments away from climate disaster, and into a prosperous, sustainable future.

Some institutions are trying to resist divestment because they think there aren’t any other options. Our resource proves that they’re wrong. What’s more, 85 per cent of students think their institution should invest in renewables. It’s time to Divest-Invest.

We hope you find this a useful document for winning the arguments on divestment, and helping you to think creatively about positive reinvestment.

Read the briefing now, and talk to us about your ideas and how we can support you.