Divest the Virginia Retirement System, VRS

Divestment Overview:

Divestment means getting rid of stocks, bonds, or investment funds that are unethical or morally ambiguous.  The most successful divestment campaign was the South African Apartheid campaign that helped overturn the Apartheid government and usher in an era of democracy and equality.

Fossil fuel divestment takes the fossil fuel industry to task for its culpability in the climate crisis.  Beginning on college campuses, the fossil fuel divestment campaign has spread to: (data from http://gofossilfree.org/commitments/)

• Faith-based Groups – 27% 
• Foundations – 25%
• Pension Funds – 13%
• Governmental Organizations – 13% 
• Colleges, Universities and schools – 12%
• NGOs – 6%
• For-Profit Corporations – 2% 
• Health – 1%

VRS Background:

The Virginia Retirement System (VRS) manages 67 billion dollars and approximately 820 employers participate in the system, including state agencies, public colleges and universities, local public school divisions and political subdivisions that have elected to participate. Political subdivisions include counties, cities, towns, special authorities and commissions. As of June 30, 2012, VRS had approximately 342,000 active members and 163,000 retirees and beneficiaries. 

On February 14, 2015, Global Divestment Day, 350 Loudoun launched the Divest the VRS campaign.  Our petition brings the divestment movement to the VA General Assembly, which governs the VRS.  Like other divestment campaigns, ours directs the Virginia General Assembly to pass legislation requiring the VRS to:

1. Immediately cease making new investments in in the top 200 fossil-fuel companies, as identified by Carbon Tracker and updates;

2. Promptly pursue responsible alternative investments in a public and transparent manner;

3. And within five years, divest from equities, bonds and commingled funds that include the top 200 fossil-fuel companies & updates.

Please sign our petition and support it by circulating it within your groups.
 
You might also wish to petition your local government to adopt a resolution requesting the VA General Assembly to divest from fossil fuels.  350 Loudoun’s divestment campaign also includes petitions to the Town of Leesburg and to the County of Loudoun. 

Fossil Fuel Divestment interesting facts: Divest the VRS Petition has been signed by members of:

• Employed teachers
• Retired teachers 
• VA Commonwealth Attorney
• Clergy 
• Faith based climate change activists
• Environmental groups

The Rockefeller Foundation divested within 1 month of the September, 2014 People’s Climate March in New York City. Momentum for divestment is growing.

GoFossilFree.org reports that within a 10 week period just prior to the Paris Talks, more than 100 institutions made new commitments to divest from fossil fuels, bringing a total of more than 500 institutions representing over $3.4 trillion in assets into the divestment campaign.

On October 8, 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill requiring the $291 billion CA Public Employees retirement funds, CalPERS & CalSTRS, to divest from thermal coal.  These funds are the largest pension funds in the world.

To sign the Divest VA VRS, please go to:

https://campaigns.gofossilfree.org/petitions/divest-the-virginia-retirement-system-from-fossil-fuels 

Thank you! 
Natalie Pien, UUC/Loudon,

FACS Member

Incoming FACS Executive Director Rebecca Elliott on Her First Few Weeks

FACS Executive Director Rebecca Elliott

It’s a tremendous honor to join Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions as its Executive Director. 

These first weeks have been very exciting.  Just today, I met with a funny, boisterous green team leader who is ready to take the next steps with her congregation, and who wants FACS’s help to think through what those next steps might be.

Whether it’s exploring advocacy for better policies or holding the first environmental movie night in your place of worship, we at FACS want to help.  And to better understand how that help would make the most difference, I would love to chat with you. 

Please send me an email; I’d very much appreciate an opportunity to schedule coffee or a phone call.  We can talk through what your interests are and how FACS can help fulfill them.  I can be reached at info@faithforclimate.org

Until then, please allow me to share some information on my background.

Professionally, I come most recently from Catholic Climate Covenant, where I helped Catholic people and institutions work together to address climate change.  Although I am not Catholic, it was very exciting to be at the forefront of the U.S. response to Pope Francis’s recent encyclical “On the Care of Our Common Home.” The encyclical itself is beautifully wrought, and it’s wonderful to see the new conversations about creation that it has started among people of faith.

Personally, I find sustenance in my family life.  I have two young children and an older godson, who is very present in our lives. I attend a tiny Christian church.  The vision of my church is based on the beatitudes, which call us to serve and love one another. 

As you might expect, some of my response to that call has meant living more lightly on the Earth.  At home, we garden, compost, and raise chickens and bees. We drive an electric car, have switched to clean energy, and eat vegetarian food.  Even though we make an effort to reduce our contribution to climate change, I am very aware of how much bigger my footprint is than the footprint of my brothers and sisters in poverty.

I hope that by working together with my neighbors, I can connect with the good spirit that moves us and makes greater things possible.  My first few weeks here at Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions have really affirmed the goodness of this community.

Eric Goplerud, Jean Wright, Scott Peterson, and all of my new friends on the Community Council have been very welcoming. New friends among Northern Virginia’s congregations have also opened their doors and their arms, demonstrating the loving spirit that makes this work such a joy.

I hope to add you to that list of new friends.  Please do be in touch at info@faithforclimate.org

Yours in hope,

Rebecca Elliott

http://www.faithforclimate.org/