SCU Putting More Greenbacks into Green Technology
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Dec. 9, 2015 —When it comes to commitment to environmental sustainability, Santa Clara University just put a bit more of its money where its mouth is.
The University recently undertook two investments – a campus-based Sustainability Investment Fund and a lead position in the Silicon Valley-based “impact company” Shared-X – that help reduce carbon emissions, support green technological innovations, or reduce poverty in developing countries.
“Santa Clara University is pleased to participate in these investments, which further our commitment to economic justice in many ways,” said Michael Hindery, Santa Clara University’s vice president for finance and administration. “They continue our multi-year effort to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions; they help educate our students and others to advance green technologies; and they support in a meaningful way the global effort to help those most affected by the catastrophic effects of climate change.”
The $250,000 Campus Sustainability Investment Fund offers funds for student, faculty, or staff-initiated campus-based projects that aim to reduce SCU’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The fund will support student, faculty, and staff-initiated campus-based projects that move the university to its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving Climate Neutrality by 2020. The projects will be selected each quarter, and can be focused on reducing emissions in the areas of:
*Electricity or natural gas use
*Transportation emissions (from student/employee commuting or SCU-sponsored travel)
*Landfill waste
*Water use and consumption
The second is a lead investment by the University’s endowment fund in Shared-X, which provides technologies or techniques to farmers in developing countries, to help them increase the percentage of planted crops that produce viable fruits, vegetables or grains. In countries like Peru, yields are only 20 percent of their potential, compared with as much as 80 percent in countries like the U.S.
The company invests in or shares with farmers advanced technology such as shading and pruning technology, advanced irrigation, or improved crop-selection methods. Shared-X profits from its ownership stake in certain farms.
Shared-X was started by former Kleiner Perkins green-technology investor John Denniston, who partnered with former Undersecretary of Agriculture for Peru, Tony Salas. A unique investment tool, Shared-X seeks to help lift thousands of farmers in Latin America and other emerging economies out of extreme poverty, while also helping investors achieve a ‘triple bottom line’ -- financial, social and environmental returns on their investment.
Such an investment is in alignment with the values and work of SCU, especially its Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, which mentors, trains, and provides supportive research for social entrepreneurs pursuing their own “triple bottom lines” around the globe.
About Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California’s Silicon Valley, offers its more than 9,000 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering; master’s degrees in business, education, counseling psychology, pastoral ministry, and theology; and law degrees and engineering Ph.D.s. Distinguished nationally by one of the highest graduation rates among all U.S. master’s universities, California’s oldest operating higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. For more information, see www.scu.edu.
Media Contact
Deborah Lohse | SCU Media Relations | dlohse@scu.edu | 408-554-5121