Academics belonging to the £40bn Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) have launched a campaign against the fund’s “morally unacceptable” investments.
The campaign, entitled ‘Listen to USS!’, calls for trustees to better engage with members about investment in companies that have caused concern due to factors including climate change, labour standards, tobacco and armaments.
The campaign has been backed by responsible investment charity ShareAction and the UK’s largest union for staff working in further and higher education, the University and College Union (UCU).
ShareAction said USS had chosen not to address its members’ ethical concerns, despite repeated attempts by members.
Campaigners have therefore asked USS trustees to properly consider members’ views on the scheme’s investments – to be ascertained through surveys and representation at annual meetings with the trustee board – and to commit to incorporating such views into investment policy, subject to the absence of significant financial risk.
A petition has also been launched and will be presented to the board of trustees at USS’s annual Institutions’ Meeting on 4 December in London – where USS members are not currently represented.
USS member and lecturer in Global Health Epidemiology and Evaluation, UCL Institute for Global Health, University of London, Tim Colbourn, said: “USS has a membership of hundreds of thousands of academics, many of whom study the issues that we’re concerned about, and it’s time we were listened to. It makes me so angry to know that my pension money is being invested in companies and industries that I find morally unacceptable, and which pay little regard for the future, despite years of campaigning by colleagues and other USS members to get our views heard.
“It is clearly right that USS trustees fulfil their primary duty of securing financial returns for the scheme – but this needn’t be at the expense of members’ ethical views. Short sighted investment actually overlooks the fact that in the long-term, many ‘ethical’ views may also be financial – for example, there is mounting evidence to suggest that fossil fuels are systematically overvalued. If enough of us speak out now, I know we can change this.”
A USS spokesperson told portfolio institutional: “USS takes environmental, social and governance matters very seriously and has a long history of engaging with investee companies on responsible investment and stewardship matters. We have a significant in-house team which works alongside portfolio managers to integrate environmental, social and governance matters into the investment analysis and these issues are taken into account in investment decision making where they are material to a company’s performance.
“Our approach includes engaging with policy makers to drive change, for example we regularly meet with civil servants and politicians to help build understanding of the investment considerations of climate change and encourage the development of an appropriate regulatory framework to facilitate the transition to a low carbon economy.
“We continue to work with our legal advisers to consider the Law Commission’s recent report and understand the impact on the trustee company’s responsibilities under trust law.”
This comes as the UCU announced USS members had voted in favour of strike action in response to proposed changes to the scheme, which include reduced coverage of the defined benefit element and the introduction of a defined contribution plan.
In the ballot, 78% of members of the UCU who voted, voted for strike action and 87% voted for action short of a strike, which could include a boycott of marking students’ work.
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