Office

Of
The
Vice-Chancellor.
People and Planet Sheffield
Cc: Chair of Council, Treasurer
UEB
Jack Wyse

12 February 2015
KB/DMS

Vice-Chancellor
Professor Sir Keith Burnett CBE, FRS, FLSW
Firth Court
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN
Telephone: +44 (0) 114 222 1007
Fax: +44 (0) 114 222 1001
Email: vc@sheffield.ac.uk

Dear Liam, Christopher and Camilla

Thank you for your letter of 17 December 2014 about the Fossil Free Sheffield campaign. I discussed
this in depth with my University Executive Board at our meeting on January 27th 2015, and write to let
you know our response.
We are all agreed that the threat of climate change is critically important, that this requires significant
reductions in the use of fossil fuels, and that the University must play its part in reducing carbon
emissions. We are supportive of the general principles behind the Go Fossil Fuel Free campaign and
we are keen to promote environmental sustainability.
As a research-intensive university one of the main ways in which we can promote environmental
sustainability is through research that is directed at developing more efficient and effective energy
sources or reducing our energy use. The University is currently involved in significant research
projects into renewable energy, such as photovoltaic research, the Sheffield Siemens wind energy
centre, energy storage, and new developments in low energy lighting, commercialised through Seren
(the University currently holds around 21M for research projects related to renewable energy and
energy demand). Our Grantham Centre for Sustainability, which was set up last year with a
philanthropic donation of 2.6 million, is focusing on advancing the science of sustainability and
further developing our pioneering research into harnessing the power of the sun to solve some of the
worlds greatest challenges.
We believe that decarbonisation of our electricity supply will require new nuclear build and we are
demonstrating that belief through major investment in and commitment to our nuclear advanced
manufacturing research centre. There will also be a continued need, for the foreseeable future, to
reduce the climate impact of continued fossil fuel use and we are working to support this need
through our pilot scale carbon capture and storage research facility.
While sympathetic to the principles behind the Go Fossil Fuel Free campaign, I would not want to
divert our efforts from our research and teaching in these areas, where we believe we can make the
most significant contribution to reducing the use of fossil fuels over the medium/longer term.

People and Planet Sheffield

12 February 2015

We are also mindful that as an institution by far our greatest contribution to climate change is through
our direct consumption of energy, which in this country derives overwhelmingly from fossil fuels. This
in turn directly supports the energy industry in its dependence on fossil fuels. We think that it would
be of greater environmental benefit for the University to focus its efforts on reducing its energy use
(or more accurately the CO2 emissions connected to energy use) rather than on divesting its relatively
modest investments in companies deriving energy from fossil fuels. We continue to develop ways in
which we can reduce our environmental impact through investment in new technology and behaviour
change and can demonstrate real results. For example, through our environmental controls project,
we have invested 5.2 million in energy saving initiatives in our most energy-intensive buildings,
resulting in annual savings of 2,200 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Your specific requests are about divestment from fossil fuel companies. Our exposure to fossil fuel
industries is estimated at 2% (under 1m) of our overall endowment investment portfolio (of
approximately 38m). The Investment Group of the Universitys Council welcomed the presentation
by the Students Union Officer Jack Wyse and a discussion about the concerns of People and Planet on
1 December 2014. While the remit of the Group is confined to overseeing the investment performance
of the Universitys endowments, fossil free investment will be considered in the development of the
Socially Responsible Investment Policy at the next meeting of the Group in May this year. Our
investments are currently contracted with our provider Sarasin who manage pooled funds. Sarasin
are one of the largest providers of fund management to charities including universities and whilst they
do have a Socially Responsible Fund this does not exclude fossil fuel investments. They have
confirmed that to date they have received no requests from their clients for such a fund. This means
that we would face some practical problems should we wish to divest from fossil fuel investments;
nevertheless, this is something that the Group will consider further in May along with a draft Socially
Responsible Investment policy and in the light of other market developments; and I will ask to be kept
fully briefed on these discussions.
The University Executive Board welcomes the fact that you have raised these important issues about
energy derived from fossil fuels with us, and we intend to develop a position statement on this whole
area to provide the context for any review of our investment policy, and other actions we are taking to
help tackle climate change, including the direct use of fossil fuels through our energy consumption. I
believe it is best to think through more carefully our overall position before making a specific
commitment about one aspect of this, i.e. divestment from fossil fuel companies.
I am very happy to discuss these issues with you in person.
Best wishes.
Yours sincerely

Professor Sir Keith Burnett

Vice-Chancellor