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With the publication of the College Sustainability Report Card 2010, more than 1,100 school survey responses from over 300 institutions are now available online. In total, these surveys offer more than 10,000 pages of data collected from colleges and universities during the summer of 2009. To access surveys from other schools, go to the surveys section of the website. To see grades, or to access additional surveys submitted by this school, please click the "Back to Report Card" link at the beginning or end of the survey.
Name: Edward F. Grefenstette
Title: Treasurer and Chief Investment Officer
Date survey submitted: July 18, 2009
1) How does your school handle proxy voting on environmental, social, and governance issues?
(a) We do not have the ability to vote proxies as the entire equity holdings of the endowment are invested in mutual funds (e.g. CommonFund, Fidelity, Vanguard, etc.).
(b) We ask that our investment managers handle the details of proxy voting.
(c) We provide our investment managers with general guidelines that determine our proxy votes.
(d) We provide our investment managers with specific corporate governance guidelines that determine our proxy votes.*
(e) We provide our investment managers with specific environmental and social guidelines that determine our proxy votes.*
(f) A member of our school administration determines our proxy votes.
(g) A committee of administrators and/or trustees deliberates and makes decisions on proxy votes.
(h) A committee that includes student representatives deliberates and makes recommendations or decisions on proxy votes.
(i) School community feedback is incorporated into proxy voting decisions through town hall meetings or a website.
Your answers:
Proxy voting on corporate governance matters: See response below
Proxy voting on environmental and social resolutions: See response below
CMU Response:
The university’s investment office votes proxies for any securities directly held by the university, while the university’s external investment managers execute proxy voting on all separately managed accounts. For commingled investments, proxy voting is handled by the specific fund manager. In the coming fiscal year, the Investment Committee of the university’s Board of Trustees will consider a more formal program for providing external fund managers with explicit recommendations/guidelines to govern proxy voting for the university in a manner that is consistent with the university’s overall strong commitment to building long-term shareholder value, with appropriate sensitivities to issues of sustainability.
Furthermore, the investment office, as part of the manager selection criteria, heavily weights each investment manager’s demonstrated efforts to act in a highly ethical manner, which may include whether they invest in sustainable projects or technology. By our focus on investing with ethical managers, we believe we advance our commitment to sustainability as reflected through proxy voting.
*Please provide URL or attach guidelines (optional).
2) If you answered "g" or "h" to question 1, please provide the following information about the committee:
Name of committee:
Number of meetings held since August 2008:
Name of chair(s):
Position of chair (e.g., administrator, faculty, staff, student):
To whom does the committee report (e.g., Trustee Committee, President, Vice President):
Number of administrators on committee:
Number of alumni on committee:
Number of faculty on committee:
Number of staff on committee:
Number of students on committee:
Number of trustees on committee:
Total number of committee members:
CMU Response:
N/A
3) Please indicate what information about proxy voting records is made available to each of the groups listed under "Your answers" (select all that apply):
(a) No information is made available
(b) Votes cast on proxy resolutions only by category (and not company specific)
(c) Votes cast on proxy resolutions on a company-specific level
(d) Votes cast on proxy resolutions on a company-specific level, including the number of shares
Your answers:
Trustees and senior administrators: (d)
Trustees, senior administrators and other select members of the school community: (d)
All members of the school community including faculty, staff, students and alumni: (a)
The public per open records law: (a)
The public: (a)
CMU Response:
The university makes available details of its portfolio holdings to members of the university’s Board of Trustees, senior administrative officials as well as select members of the school community. The investment office currently maintains a record of proxy voting. In addition, the university includes in its publicly available annual report commentary of the endowment objectives as well as details of the university’s asset allocation.
4) Where is information about proxy voting records made available?
(a) Information is not made available.
(b) Information is available at the investment office or similar office on campus.
(c) Information is sent to individuals upon request.
(d) Information is on the school website with password protection.
(e) Information is on the school website and is accessible to the public.
Your answers:
To the school community.
Proxy voting records on environmental and social resolutions:
Proxy voting records on corporate governance matters:
To the public.
Proxy voting records on environmental and social resolutions:
Proxy voting records on corporate governance matters:
CMU Response:
See CMU Response to #3 above.
5) Please indicate what information about endowment holdings is made available to each of the groups listed under "Your answers" (select all that apply):
(a) No information is made available
(b) Asset allocation
(c) List of external managers
(d) List of mutual funds
(e) Equity holdings
(f) Fixed income holdings
(g) Real estate holdings
(h) Hedge fund holdings
(i) Private equity holdings
(j) Venture capital holdings
(k) Natural resource holdings
(l) Cash
(m) Other holdings (please specify)
(n) All holdings
Your answers:
Available to trustees and senior administrators: (n)
Available to trustees, senior administrators, and other select members of the school community: (n)
Available to all members of the school community, including faculty, staff, students, and alumni: (b)
Available to the public per open records law: (b)
Available to the public: (b)
CMU Response:
The university makes available all of the holdings in the long term pool to trustees, senior administrators, and other select members of the school community. A detail of the university’s asset allocation, investment performance, investment goals, and other commentary is made available to the public through the university’s annual report.
6) Please indicate where information about endowment holdings is made available to the school community and to the public:
(a) Information is not made available.
(b) Information is available at the investment office or similar office on campus.
(c) Information is sent to individuals upon request.
(d) Information is on the school website with password protection.
(e) Information is on the school website and is accessible to the public.
Your answers:
To the school community: (e)
To the public: (e)
CMU Response:
Detail of the university’s asset allocation, investment performance, investment goals, and other commentary is made available through the university website. Details of all the university’s holdings are sent directly to trustees, senior administrators, and other select members of the school community.
7) Is your school currently invested in any of the following areas? (Please list all that apply.)
(a) Renewable energy funds or similar investment vehicles
(b) Community development financial institutions or community development loan funds
(c) On-campus energy and/or water efficiency projects through the endowment (as an investment and not a payout)
(d) None of the above
Your answer: (a)
CMU Response:
The university has many significant investments in (and future commitments to) investment funds that are dedicated in part or in their entirety on the creation, building and growing of renewable energy technologies and related companies. These investments by the university are philosophically consistent with the university’s long-standing commitment to sustainability principles and the current sustainability projects that the university’s community has actively embraced.
8) Is your school currently exploring investment in any of the following areas? (Please list all that apply.)
(a) Renewable energy funds or similar investment vehicles
(b) Community development financial institutions or community development loan funds
(c) On-campus energy and/or water efficiency projects through the endowment (as an investment and not as a payout)
(d) None of the above
Your answer: (a)
CMU Response
In addition to our current investments and outstanding commitments, the university continues to explore renewable energy investment partnerships.
9) Does your school have any investment policy provisions, or use any investment managers, that consider environmental/sustainability factors?
(a) No
(b) Yes (please describe)
(c) Currently under consideration (please describe)
Your answer: (c)
CMU Response:
The university does not currently maintain written policy provisions that reflect its current and substantial commitment to environmental/sustainability factors. However, we believe that Carnegie Mellon’s significant investment in venture capital partnerships, which is higher than most of our peers, gives the university significant exposure to developing “clean tech,” which is expected to comprise a large share of future venture capital commitments. The importance and potential reward of clean technology is one of the key drivers of our heavy allocation to the venture capital asset class. In the coming year, the university will strongly consider making additional allocations to dedicated clean technology venture capital funds.
10) Does your school offer donors the option of directing gifts to an investment fund that considers environmental/sustainability factors?
(a) No
(b) Yes (please describe)
(c) Currently under consideration (please describe)
Your answer:
CMU Response:
The university does not currently have the ability to offer donors the ability to direct gifts in such a manner. All endowed gifts are included to the long term pool of investments, which include the significant investments in (and future commitments to) renewable energy funds as noted above. (Please see response to Question #9.) Of course, independent of the university’s endowment investments, the university has directed substantial gifts toward supporting environmental/sustainability-related projects, such as the recent gift to the university from the The Heinz Endowments, a portion of which will be used to expand teaching and research at the university specifically in green chemistry and sustainability or the significant gift in 2004 which established the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education & Research. Furthermore, donors are welcome to place restrictions on their gifts that dictate the manner in which they are spent. Therefore, the university does have a system whereby donors can directly support any of Carnegie Mellon’s green initiatives through donations in the university endowment.
Question 11 is for informational purposes only; responses will NOT be included in the Report Card evaluation process.
11) Please provide total endowment value as of the following dates:
6/30/2008: 1,271.8mm
9/30/2008: 1,095.6mm
12/31/2008: 933.1mm
3/31/2009: 872.2mm
6/30/2009 (may be submitted separately at a later date): 861.4mm
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