FUEL FOR THOUGHT

In April 2022, approximately 300 students marched to the steps of Samuel Phillips Hall, intent on a singular purpose: to urge the Board of Trustees to divest its fossil fuel holdings.

The rally was a watershed moment for Divest Andover, which outlined requests in a November 2021 letter to the board, including divestment from fossil fuel legacy funds upon their expiration; and investment in environmentally sustainable and socially responsible portfolios. At the time, the endowment had about 4% indirect exposure to mostly private as well as some publicly traded energy companies.

“Andover embraces knowledge and goodness, non sibi, and being a private school with a public purpose,” says Frank Zhou ’22, former Divest Andover member. “It’s becoming increasingly untenable to not consider climate advocacy in earnest and still hold true to those ideals.”

According to Kirsten Glantz, PA’s chief investment officer, divesting is a multi-faceted challenge. The Academy currently operates under the guidelines of its 2008 Ethical Considerations in Investments policy, which outlines the school’s ability to divest when a particular investment “constitutes grave social injury or injustice.”

“We all want to avoid further damage to our planet— and have Academy investments align with that long-term goal,” says Glantz, adding that PA has not made any private energy-related investment commitments since 2018.

“What we own today are predominantly legacy private commitment fund investments; we are not in control of the timing of distributions from those investments that were already made years ago. The fund managers determine those exits,” Glantz explains. “If we could sell our ownership of these illiquid funds on the secondary market, it would be at a large discount and we’d certainly realize a material loss from current values—negatively impacting the endowment, which supports nearly half the operating budget of the school each year. Such losses would impact the endowment resources available for financial aid, operating expenses, infrastructure, and more.”

“There aren’t easy solutions to these challenges, but I’m very proud of Andover students for engaging to learn more about them and our investment strategies,” she says. “I want them to know we are thinking carefully about these issues and are focused on mapping out future energy transition investment opportunities away from fossil fuels.”

For more information on Andover’s climate change work, visit andover.edu/living/a-greener-blue or @agreenerblue on Instagram.