The Divestment Movement

Divestment is the act of selling all of one's shares of a company or industry for a political or social reason. Through divestment, an investor can reprimand irresponsible corporations. In the 1980s, students witnessed the brutal apartheid regime in South Africa that institutionalized racism and worked to strip people of color of inherent human rights. While much of the world stood still, college students across the United States refused to do so. They sprang into action with a divestment movement, encouraging their universities to withdraw financial support from a system that is morally reprehensible. By transforming stock dependent on South Africa into a moral pariah, the divestment movement contributed to a larger international movement that eventually toppled the apartheid regime.

Fossil Fuel Divestment

The campaign to divest coal at the University of Illinois began in fall 2011. With Bill McKibben's "Do the Math" tour, the movement with two other schools we knew of working on divestment in 2011 has now grown to over 200 schools with active or building campaigns today.

They can be found at 350's gofossilfree.org

To learn more about the climate crisis:

• Global Warming's Terrifying New Math - Bill McKibben in Rolling Stone

To connect with the larger divestment movement:

• We Are Power Shift
• Go Fossil Free

To learn more about divestment:

• Energy Action Coalition - Coal Divestment
• Coal Divestment Toolkit
• Responsible Endowments Coalition - Student Handbook

Other awesome resources:

• Cost of Coal
• Beyond Coal
• Sierra Club - Coal Factsheets
• As You Sow - Financial Risks of Coal
• Responsible Endowments Coalition
• Sustainable Endowments Institute
• As You Sow
• Building a Carbon Free Portfolio